r/london Telling my south euro friends we're effectively dying here

[rcjordan]

I have been explaining the difference eu residential construction makes handling heat. Panel 5 nails it.

https://old.reddit.com/r/london/comments/1uri5qt/telling_my_south_euro_friends_were_effectively/

[ergophobe]

Shutters are one of those European things that just don't exist in the US. Maybe a few old farmhouses and a very small number of high end houses.

I wanted shutters on our house, but finding a window system in the US that gives you both screens and shutters is quite expensive.

Meanwhile, my first place in Switzerland had shutters but there were no screens and it was out in the country where mosquitoes were voracious

[rcjordan]

like a worm in hot ashes

[rcjordan]

During the northern hemisphere's summer, the North Pole is tilted toward the Sun. The further north you travel, the more that region leans into the sun's light.

* **The UK** sits much further north (London is at roughly $51.5^\circ\text{ N}$ latitude).
* **Florida** is much closer to the equator (Miami is at roughly $25.8^\circ\text{ N}$ latitude).

Because of this northern tilt, the sun stays above the horizon for a much longer stretch of the day in the UK than it does in Florida during July.

---

### July Daylight Comparison

To see the difference in action, look at how much daylight both regions get in mid-July:

| Location | Sunrise (Mid-July) | Sunset (Mid-July) | Total Daylight Hours |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **London, UK** | ~5:00 AM | ~9:10 PM | **~16 hours, 10 minutes** |
| **Miami, Florida** | ~6:40 AM | ~8:15 PM | **~13 hours, 35 minutes** |

> **The Takeaway:** In mid-July, London gets about **2.5 hours more daylight** per day than Miami. If you go even further north in the UK, like Edinburgh, Scotland, they get nearly 17.5 hours of daylight!

### The Catch: Daylight vs. Sunshine

While the UK has the sun above the horizon for longer, it doesn't always mean it's *sunnier*. Florida still wins on actual **solar irradiance** (the intensity of the sun's rays) and typically gets more cloud-free, bright sunshine hours than the famously overcast UK.

So, while the UK keeps the twilight lingering until nearly 10:00 PM in July, Florida's shorter day delivers a much stronger, hotter dose of sunshine.