I always count down the days to our Winter solstice, which usually occurs around 21 June. Why?
Because then I know I can start looking forward to longer days. Although I know we will still have a lot of cold. rainy days, somehow it doesn't seem so bad if it is light.
At the moment I leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark. Since I work 5½ days a week that only leaves me about 14 hours a week to enjoy my garden. Now that could get depressing!
With longer days I can at least spend a few minutes before work taking a quick walk around to see what's growing.
I found a useful site that gives the sunrise and sunset times and I spent some time comparing different places around the world.
Here in Cape Town on 21 June we will have daylight for 9 hours and 53 minutes not bad when compared to London who will only have 7 hours and 49 minutes of daylight on their winter solstice which this year falls on 22 December.
Cape Town's Summer Solstice on 22 December will give us 14 hours and 25 minutes of daylight, very similar to Sydney. London gets a whopping 16 hours 38minutes daylight on their Summer Solstice on 21 June.
I feel very fortunate to live where I am, I have about 4½ hours difference in the amount of daylight hours between mid winter and mid summer. Just enough to make the difference noticeable and enjoyable.
London has more than 8 hours difference and Moscow 10½ hours, but Oslo has a humongous 13 hours. Huge differences like this can lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder. You can find out more about it here SAD
I have another reason to be happy about where I live, because when our Summer Solstice comes around I am almost guaranteed to have a full 14 hours blazing SUNSHINE. Unlike other cities who have cloud and rain interfering with their sunlight hours, Cape Town summers are always sunny.
Only 4 days to go ….......
You can compare your daylight hours here Time and Date
