Blinded by the light

Oh, that Twisted Chili. In response to one of my previous posts about battling to get changed in a darkened locker room, he commented, "I thought you'd be walking around with one of those head torches strapped on anyway - it must be damned dark up there by now!"

Damned dark? Up here? Whilst we are considerably north of much of the planet, we are by no means far enough "up there" to be in danger of experiencing polar night any time soon. We can't even see the Aurora Borealis from here. At a mere 47 degrees, 37 minutes north latitude, we're not even as far north as London, England, which is 51 degrees, 32 minutes north. It gets darker earlier at this time of year in England than it does here. But. And herein lies the problem, England is the happy recipient of onshore winds that pass over the Gulf Stream Drift, which is a warm current. Newfoundland is the unhappy victim of the Labrador current, which is cold. Hence our wetter, windier and colder climate. But not, my friends, darker.