I did a fair amount of research over the 8 days of sun that ended today, and I came to a conclusion. When the sun is out in Dublin, it is at least as strong as the sun in Gurnee in mid-May. It is more than strong enough to bask in a sunny spot, even late in the day.
This was a subject of some speculation before I left the lower latitudes of Chicagoland (42° N), Pennsylvania (40° N), New Jersey and NYC (40° N). At that time, Anita was sending messages that vividly portrayed a dim sun that rarely penetrated thick clouds. To reassure myself, I thought, “Surely Dublin is no higher than the UP — and people sunbathe there, right?” Then I actually checked:
- Michigan’s UP: 46° N
- Dublin: 53° N
Is this one of the many things that cannot be conveyed by reading and research about a place? I couldn’t trust Irish sources, after all; “basking in the sun” might mean something very different to them.
