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Originally Posted by Bęthberry
Actually, it is the autumn season that appears to have the fewest hours of sunshine, of all the seasons in the northern hemisphere (unless we count the far north, where midnight sun and noon moon come into play). From the September Equinox to the December Equinox, daylight diminishes, creating the sensation of increasing gloom and darkness. Winter, despite the cold and storms, actually sees increasing hours of sunlight, as the days lengthen progressively from December 21, the shortest day, on. Ironically, as the temperatures reach their coldest, sunlight increases.
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Well of course, but just because there's more sunshine in February than in December doesn't mean I want to be lolling beside the pool all day! And in case anyone is wondering, the reason the days are colder after the equinox rather than before is due to snow cover. When there is a blanket of white snow on the ground it is highly reflective of the sun's radiation so much of the strengthening sunlight is reflected back into space, meaning that while the total input of solar radiation is higher, when you subtract from that the radiation lost to space, the net input of radiation into warming the surface of the Earth is much lower than in the months preceding the equinox when there is little or no snow.
I still say the book beckons in the fall because that's the time for hunkering down for the winter, and you need a good LONG book. Summer is for shorter novels which can easily be stuffed into your beach bag.