On Tuesday, 23 December 2014 22:14:27 UTC+13, Norman wrote:
RW wrote:

On Tuesday, 23 December 2014 06:48:36 UTC+13, Norman wrote:


Annual sun at Tideswell (and Weston Coyney) is approx. ...??


Between 950 and 1000 hours in Tideswell.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

That's very low even compared with some of Scotland - do you lose
daylight from proximity to hills?

Can lose up to 45-60 minutes at the end of the day due to the lie of
the land but if it's cloudy, as it very often is at that time of day,
nothing gets lost :-) For much of the year the sunniest part of the day
is often the first few hours of the morning, before the convection gets
going. We have very good exposure to morning sunshine so nothing gets
lost in the morning.

For the period Mar-Oct home-grown convective cloud spreading out to a
sheet of Sc is very much the norm resulting in a couple of hours of
early sunshine then not a lot after that. During the period Nov-Feb
it's often just cloudy, much like the rest of the country.

We have the disadvantage of being exposed to the whole sector from NW
through S to NE. It's only between NW and NE that we get into a proper
shadow from hills and see some real sunshine and that isn't a very
common wind direction. It's very different from what Ken in Copley
experiences. He gets lots of sunshine in a westerly due to bing in the
shadow of hills to the west.

Most places in Scotland are very shelterd from one sector even though
they may be very exposed to others.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

Thanks for that excellent description, gives one a vivid idea of your sun regime. I have noticed on the sun maps for the UK the enhanced averages of many of the coastal zones, as compared with inland areas. In my country the convective effects seem to be much less important, but hill or mountain sheltering is a major factor. A somewhat bizarre climate is found at Mt Cook village just east of the Southern Alps - in a rain shadow (of sorts) with its 4400mm annual rainfall (west of the divide there are areas with at least 13000mm and possibly quite a bit more) and with considerable variability in cloudiness. Overall it is quite sunny with 50% of the possible recorded, no less than on the main plains much further east.