Daylight in Winter? (Portland, Kittery, Fort Kent: house, school, vs.)

[rossco17]

My family is moving to Maine, hopefully this year, and I have a question that I hope someone can answer for me. I grew up in Seattle and know about the much shorter days during the winter. There, during the darkest time of winters, the sun comes up around 8am and goes down around 5pm. Yes - dark on the way to and way back from work!

Can somebody tell me if the winter daylight situation in Maine is similar to the Pacific Northwest? I have been to Maine only once during winter, a February weekend, and although it snowed at night, the days were bright and sunny and brisk. lovely.

The info is much appreciated!

[Mark S.]

Depends on where you're at. Sunrise/sunset times can vary greatley depending on how far north you are. Sun is up much later in Fort Kent than in Kittery.

Here is a neat site: Sunrise, Sunset Calendars and Local Time

You can compare and contrast times for various places.

[ogre]

As pointed out above, Maine has enough north-south distance that the length of the day does vary from one end of the state to the other. Northern Maine is closer to the latitude of Seattle, so the days in the south might be a bit longer than you're used to. Still, the winter days are pretty short all over Maine. One reason it may have seemed much brighter than you were used to in Seattle is that winter in this part of the Northeast isn't perpetually cloudy as it is in Seattle. There's a tradeoff, though. Northeastern winters are colder than those in Seattle. What's your preference?

[deerislesmile]

There are those days in winter when the sun comes up after my son goes to school (8 a.m.) and is setting again before he gets home (3:30). We kind of joke that his dad and I rarely get to see our house during the winter because we are away at work when the sun is up!

[Coaster]

Unless you're counting the seconds, hours of daylight in Maine and Seattle are pretty comparable year round. The difference between extreme northern and southern Maine is about 25-30 minutes, depending on the time of year, according to the sunrise/sunset sites I've looked at. Northern Maine gets more daylight in the summer and less in the winter, than southern Maine.

[skytrekker]

It depends where you are in Maine;

Seattle is about 48 degrees north latitude, which is about the same latitude as north central Maine. Portland in southern Maine will have more daylight hours then Seattle in late Autumn and into winter.

[ExtinctBird]

Another consideration is that Maine is at the east edge of its timezone, and Seattle is at the west edge of its timezone. Generally, this will result in earlier sunrise/sunset times in Maine vs. Seattle throughout the year.

[rossco17]

That makes a lot of sense and the comparison web site confirms that. Would you all say that Southern Maine winter days are generally clear (vs. the cloudy winters of Seattle)?

[skytrekker]

New England in general can have cloudy overcast days in the winter, but there can many periods of sunny crisp days days as well- its not like the Pacific NW- where you may have weeks of clouds and drizzle.

[oceanfit185]

the snow makes the days reflects the sun light up into your face so the winter days can seam very bright and sunny. But for the most part, snow sucks.