Winter solstice today! Also making this is the shortest day of the year. We had our four hours of daylight which is bad enough at the best of times, but when it’s overcast and grey like it was today – pfftt! Can’t even call it a proper day.
WHO’S SORRY FOR US?
Probably not them 25,000 or so folks up in Akureyri (north Iceland), who only got three hours. Or the 115 people who make up the population of Grímsey (north north Iceland and incidentally one of the most magical places on the planet), who had to make do with two hours and fifteen minutes. But maybe the Australians who, I imagine, are all lounging about on a beach at this precise moment, feeling intensely sorry for all of us poor sods up here.
WE HAVE YULE LAD…
The Peeping Tom of the Yule Lad family: Gluggagægir, or Window Peeper. Contrary to his perv namesake, this dude was interested only in gawking at things he could steal. Maybe he was a drug addict. Or maybe I should get my mind out of this SAD* winter darkness and start thinking happy, healthy thoughts for a change.
AND FINALLY, THE WEATHER
It rained little Icelandic seals today (well, it doesn’t rain cats and dogs up here!). YT went for an incredibly refreshing brisk walk around the golf course and breathed some of the freshest, cleanest, most wonderful air this side of Antarctica. And got absolutely soaked in the process but it didn’t matter because I was watching the waves rolling in. They were amazing – big and robust and aqua-coloured, making that inimitable wave sound that is so incredibly huge and fantastically gentle both at the same time. So it rained and rained and then it stopped raining and got windy and very cold so all the rain froze on the ground and now we have an Iceland-sized skating rink and lots of slip-sliders. Temps currently right at the freezing mark. The sun came up at 11.23; the sun went down at 15.29 and tomorrow hopefully I won’t have to write that same annoying number again because it’s the winter solstice today, yay!
*Seasonal Affective Disorder. The greatest acronym ever invented.
Is today the shortest day?
I’m in Boston, USA, where the days are quite a bit longer than the ones you are experiencing, but still short and grey followed by dark and daggone cold. On my sig. other’s radio show I pretend to be a meteorologist every Thursday morning and read the weather. Last week I announced that the shortest day of the year was coming right up on the 21st.
Today, a friend emailed me to tell me that the shortest day was actually 12/6. Is she right? I stumbled across your blog searching the web for the answer to this question (and killing time at work).
Coincedentally, some of the most memorable and painfully cold weather I’ve experienced recently was this past October in Rekj. on a really windy day that otherwise wouldn’t have been that cold. It didn’t, however, prevent Rekj. from becoming one of my fave. places on the face of the earth. This was not true for my SO, so now we get to argue about that particular windy day every time I tell him that I want to go live in Iceland. Ok, that’s enough I am rambling, but I did bookmark you…
LOL! Pretending to be a meteorologist on the radio! That’s even weirder than what I’m doing…
Yes, today is the shortest day, make no mistake. The *longest* day, OTOH is on the 21st of June – the summer solstice.
Tell your SO that we do have days that aren’t quite so nasty (and the one you experienced certainly *are*). I say the weather is always beautiful in Iceland as long as there’s no wind. Try coming in the summer when the sun doesn’t set. You’ll love it.
You know, up until I started reading here, all I knew about Iceland was that Bjork came from there, they have geothermal power and the worlds only penis museum in Reykjavik….
I’m learning so much! 🙂
The Iceland Weather Report. Always informative. Always alert. 😉
Well,you might get an argument from an Aussie or even from Antartica about the shortest day of the year. I guess that it might depend on which point one is viewing the issue….
M
Good point. Hm.