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6 h 15 min of sun (well most of the time it's ultra-gloomy)
Sunrise at 8:53 and sunset at 15:08
Civil twilight from 7:51 to 15:51
During that time the first 20 and last 20 are pretty dark and the lamp needs to be switched on.
So say, seven hours of some daylight to play with here? Tromsö and such places normally have six hours of civil twilight, so likely four hours when daylight activities can be done. It's not dark all the time even there.
During summer, shades of civil twilight can be seen up until midnight.
This picture says more than 1000 words on how bright it is at 59 N on the summer solstice at around the strike of the hour (solar time around 11 pm). Taken on midsummer 2012 in Örebro (59.15 N)
Tromsö has persistent snowfall, so yeah, it's a worse comparison when compared to Ålesund or Molde for example. Those are areas likely heavily affected by winter depression at 62 N with unstable wet winters with no solid snow cover that there is for a time in Tromsö.
(Tromsö is the Swedish spelling it's exactly the same letter in the same proto-language we share )
The scientist should travel to the aforementioned places, Tórshavn, Lerwick et cetera before jumping to conclusions. Tromsö also has a tremendous view of the mountains and a long civil twilight period even during polar night, which should help along with the induced light from the snow.
A place like Prince Rupert, BC on Canada's NW coast at 54N actually has very similar temperatures to Lerwick.
It's super rainy there - I think it might be the "wettest" place in Canada.
This is a bit south of the Shetlands and much of Scandinavia, but you can't go much further north along the west coast in Canada. After that you're into the Alaska panhandle. Which also has fairly mild climates for the latitude.
But there are many other studies.
And yes, there are people who do have problems due to the lack of light, but only a certain percentage of the population, and it is not as proportional with latitude as one might expect - short daylight hours in mid-winter is a fact also much further south, say at 50 N - so people might be inside at work during daylight hours.
For the minority which really do have problems, it is not really a depression, more like a looong lasting jet-lag, as the body's inner clock is no longer in tune with the actual time of day.
If you go to the Seattle and Portland sub forums in citydata they sure seem to complain a lot about winter depression. And Seattle is at 47 degrees latitude. Quite a bit further south then Norway.
It's super rainy there - I think it might be the "wettest" place in Canada.
This is a bit south of the Shetlands and much of Scandinavia, but you can't go much further north along the west coast in Canada. After that you're into the Alaska panhandle. Which also has fairly mild climates for the latitude.
Yeah them westerly places in Alaska/British Columbia are likely even worse than here. No mistake about that
This would raise our average winter max to -1C or zero C, and lower our average summer max to around 22C.
So on a mild winter day we'd get up to +8C instead of +3C. And a cold winter day would be -11C instead of -16C.
Woopdeedoo.
The "penalty" in summer would be a lot worse, as "cooler" summer days would go below 20C much more regularly, impacting many typical summer activities like going to the beach, swimming, boating, or simply having drinks outside at night in shorts and a t-shirt. It would also cut the number of warm summer days that go above 30C to close to zero.
I would but then again I hate snow that much. It just brings me down. Vancouver has a summer max of 22C but yet it seems as if a good portion of Canadians want to live there.
This would raise our average winter max to -1C or zero C, and lower our average summer max to around 22C.
So on a mild winter day we'd get up to +8C instead of +3C. And a cold winter day would be -11C instead of -16C.
Woopdeedoo.
The "penalty" in summer would be a lot worse, as "cooler" summer days would go below 20C much more regularly, impacting many typical summer activities like going to the beach, swimming, boating, or simply having drinks outside at night in shorts and a t-shirt. It would also cut the number of warm summer days that go above 30C to close to zero.
I sure can understand your argument about warmer summer days, although sunny days above 25C is fast getting too warm for comfort - unless you are in the water.
However, I like to be outside in winter, and a lowering of the temperature with 5C giving colder days is very noticeable. I can go walking or cross-county skiing in -5C with normal winter clothes for a fairly long time. But in -10C it is more challenging to be outside moving for a long time (several hours). Sure is possible, but need more planning and very conscious clothing, and is typically less enjoyable.
I wonder if people get more depressed in West coast places in winter at the same latitude as inland continental places due to lack of snowcover and more overall cloud cover. For example if you compare Ottawa with Portland, OR which are close to the same latitude. I'd be interested to find out
I sure can understand your argument about warmer summer days, although sunny days above 25C is fast getting too warm for comfort - unless you are in the water.
However, I like to be outside in winter, and a lowering of the temperature with 5C giving colder days is very noticeable. I can go walking or cross-county skiing in -5C with normal winter clothes for a fairly long time. But in -10C it is more challenging to be outside moving for a long time (several hours). Sure is possible, but need more planning and very conscious clothing, and is typically less enjoyable.
Well, here I can clearly distinguish a pattern between Southern and Northern Scandinavians. Here in Southern Sweden, people enjoy themselves at 25 C and only start complaining in general at 27-28. Personally I think 30 is my comfort limit, since we have no AC:s obviously.
As soon as you travel north, it seems like the end of the world is coming when the temp hits 23
Personally I think a summer high mean of 25-26 C would be ideal to live in. I'd gladly take 3 C colder winters (Moncton days milder nights pretty much) to achieve that. Having said that, we're in a rain shadow so means not much snow so easy to say
I wonder if people get more depressed in West coast places in winter at the same latitude as inland continental places due to lack of snowcover and more overall cloud cover. For example if you compare Ottawa with Portland, OR which are close to the same latitude. I'd be interested to find out
What I'm wondering is if people in the Pacific Northwest are more prone to winter depression than in Northern Europe?
What I'm wondering is if people in the Pacific Northwest are more prone to winter depression than in Northern Europe?
I don't know really
Maybe it's a case that summers are kind of gloomy here, whereas summers there are sunnier and often warmer if in a rain shadow. Both Seattle and Olympia have warmer and sunnier summers than here, whereas Vancouver is pretty similar.
Also, there's maybe like what 1 h 15 min difference of daylight? I feel stumped already in November so I can fully understand them.
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