Tuesday Was The Darkest Day In Years In Puget Sound

SEATTLE, WA - Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018, is a date that will go down as one of the darkest in Puget Sound history, literally.

The region received the lowest amount of solar radiation (AKA, sunlight) on Tuesday since Dec. 7, 2015. That's according to University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass.

The amount of solar radiation measured at the UW atmospheric sciences building Tuesday was .54 Megajoules. By comparison, we got 1.61 Megajoules of solar radiation on Aug. 31.

But Tuesday wasn't the darkest day in memory. That was Dec. 7, 2006, when we got just .39 Megajoules of solar radiation.

According to Mass, Tuesday's darkness was caused by a few factors: dense clouds overhead and plain old winter. The days will only get shorter until we hit the winter solstice on Dec. 22. On that day, we'll get only 8 hours 25 minutes of daylight - not much more than today's 8 hours 29 minutes.

Maybe it's time to take a nap.

Patch file photo