Question for those who live in states/areas where the winter brings long periods of gray skies. How does it affect you? How long does it last? Do you do anything to help you deal with it?
I am in Florida where we get plenty of sunshine, but today is really gloomy and damp and it is depressing. And that is with only one day of it. I don’t know how you handle it in places where it lasts for months.
About 15 years ago I was working a contract that required me to travel to Indiana for 1-2 weeks a month for about 2.5 years. I loved it most of the time, but the winters were always gloomy. I remember making a joke that the next time someone told me to put something where the sun doesn’t shine - I’ll know that they were talking about Indiana in the winter.
PNW resident here. It really does suck. Sunrise is 745 am. Sunset is 4:25pm. The weather is usually 5-10 degrees (C) above freezing, and cloudy or rainy most of the winter.
Things two main things that helped me were:
-getting a winter hobby. Getting back in to skiing during COVID helped give me something to look forward to during the winter
-monthly B12 shots have made a significant improvement in my energy levels, mental clarity and mood in general. These were absolutely game changing for me.
It’s pretty easy to get and stay in a depressive funk when it’s just dark, gloomy and rainy for months on end. The crazy thing is Victoria is tucked in a rain shadow and Seattle and Vancouver both get significantly more rainfall than we do. I don’t know how they handle it.
And that is why November is my most hated and depressing month - can’t do summer things and can’t do winter things (ski). If there wasn’t Christmas to look forward to I’d be signing up for MAID now I know it’s so easy to do.
I had a friend who grew up in the PNW and later moved to Arizona. She had to move out of AZ because the constant sun made her cranky. To each their own.
As other’s noted, grey skies don’t bother me. I grew up with them. Sun setting before 4 PM sucks.
Friends joke that I’m half vampire. I think I’m just majority Scandinavian-descended.
I love it. I’m a night owl and enjoy the darkness. Bright summer days wear me out by midday - living in Florida was challenging for me. If it’s going to be bright & sunny, I want it to happen when it’s 22 degrees out and I’m on a ski hill.
The year I spent studying in England was excellent for me, weather-wise. I will say that when I studied in Sweden, January at 59.8 degrees northern latitude got to be a bit much, but nothing a sauna and some vodka with friends couldn’t handle.
I’m aware that I’m very much in the minority on this subject.
You need to plan a bit differently to ensure you get done what you need that requires daylight. November is probably the worst. December you have Christmas and come January, its cold but the days are getting longer. Probably easiest if its all you know than if you loved in Florida, Arizona or another warm climate place and moved to the cold, grey “north”
I feel we usually have nice falls. Sept-dec is tolerable. But Jan-march can get really rough. I feel like we get our most extreme weather towards the end of the seasons. Late summers and late winters. Late summers are a welcome last hurrah. Late winters can go to hell.
I look forward to the spring time change every year.
ETA I just looked outside. The sky is totally skate grey. It’s been steadily raining for a couple hours. It’s 7C. I’m looking at the ocean and can’t tell where the horizon is, it’s just all grey. Sigh.
The route to and from one of my projects takes me on a lovely 2km seaside road. I just pulled over and took this picture. This is what most of our winter days look like. You can’t really see, but there is a persistent light rain, almost like a blanket of heavy mist, that just chills you to the core. Grey on grey on grey.
Gray sky and short day season here, but no, it doesn’t particularly bother me. Would I prefer sunny and 75, wearing one-third of the clothing? Yes. I think it’s just being busy leaves no time to let it get to me. A Christmas tree and a fire on a Saturday afternoon as darkness settles in isn’t all that bad.
I live along Lake Michigan and get almost zero sunshine in the winter. It’s not uncommon to go weeks without seeing the sun.
I get tired of it after a while but I don’t perceive that it causes any significant psychological problems. It sure is nice to see the sun when it does make an appearance.
this is the view out my window, and it will be like this today and most days of winter. I hate it. Plus, it’s freezing cold. I have found that it does help to get outside even if just a little bit. I also bought one of those lights that’s supposed to help and sit beside that. But, when I retire, I will be getting the hell out in the winter to somewhere with sunshine and warm weather at least for a couple of months.
It’s probably one of those things that you just don’t think about because it’s “normal”.
Growing up we had train tracks right behind our house. The house would rattle whenever a train went by. We barely noticed. It was normal. I had a friend sleepover and he complained the next day that he couldn’t sleep because the trains kept waking him up.
