A few degrees

It didn’t just rain yesterday, it snowed. I thought it was a bit cool! As is usual, it only snowed on the mountain, but it was a magnificent sight when I got up this morning.

It’s amazing what a difference a few degrees can make.

Hobart is 5° further south in latitude compared to Melbourne, and this means that, at the moment, the sun doesn’t rise until 7:30am and it sets around 5pm. I was aware of the shorter winter days in Melbourne, but had forgotten how much shorter things would get in coming to Hobart. (Hmmm, I’ve just done some research with surprising results (well, surprising to me until I thought about it properly): the day is actually only about half an hour shorter here in Hobart, but in Melbourne the sun rises a mere couple of minutes earlier whereas it goes down nearly half an hour later. Of course, Melbourne is about 3° of longitude further west.)

I remember being in Newfoundland a decade or so ago, where it is another 5° poleward, and being able to watch the sun come up at Cape Spear in December some minutes before 8am. Cape Spear is the eastern-most point of North America, so on that particular day I was the first person in the whole of that continent to see the sun rise. I took some nice photos too. I’d forgotten, though, that sunset was at a daylight-shortening 4:15pm. This has set me wondering about Oxford in December. (… Further research ensues …) Oh, dear! Oxford is at 51°N, making it another 4° closer to the pole than St John’s Newfoundland, and this means post-8am sunrises and 4pm sunsets.

I knew I’d forgotten some critical aspects while planning this sabbatical!