I can understand why people might be more familiar with sunsets around the winter solstice as the changes encompass a much greater range at the winter solstice, from about December 13 to January 1st

Doesn't feel like any time at all since we were discussing the Winter Solstice on this exact same thread!

Certainely doesn't feel like 6 months ago... Time goes fast..

I have read that we are in limbo for at least two weeks before there is any real change in the days getting shorter. Less than an hour to go,2334 BST, til the solstice then the sun starts the southward trend again

It will be very dark soon where I am...
I'm currently on an intercity bus in New Zealand somewhere near Ashburton on route to Christchurch...and it's 17:11 pm ...

The rear of our house faces west and because there was no cloud last night it was still light @ 21:45. It occurred to me whilst looking out of the window that when we get to the August bank holiday weekend, which is only nine weeks away, it will be dark by 20:00.

It's such a depressing thought. I don't see what there is to celebrate about the longest day, the thought of the days getting darker is not my idea of something I'd want to celebrate. The clocks going back in October is another depressing time of the year, it getting dark anytime before 6pm is horrible.

My dad has always said back in the 60's come the summer sometimes it would be daylight till around 11pm, surely that can't be true.

He has always said summers these days, we don't get the light evenings

It really depends where you are. If you are up in Shetland it hardly gets dark at all. In places like the western isles and the west of Ireland it is light very late.

There should be no difference in the amount of light in the evenings except during WWII when they had double summer time which was known by some as "mad time"

IIRC there was a time of year-round GMT +1 in 1968 or thereabouts. The joke du jour was 'when do you want your kids run down - on the way to school, or coming home'.

It was the 60's and my memory is a bit hazy . . .

That was 1968 to 1971 but would not affect the evenings in summer only winter.

Well it will be the Winter Solstice there now and in the UK it would certainely be pitch black by that time on thge Solstice not just starting to go dark!

Sunrise/Sunset in Christchurch in June

I serve at a charity beer festival every August Bank holiday weekend, I have done for the last 30 years or so, and the generators being fired up for the outside lighting @ 19:30 is something that always sticks in my mind as a point of reference.

10:13pm today..

That's quite early, it's pretty much daylight to 11pm here.

Yes, it is bright here till 11pm.

10:30pm and dusk is falling here now, this is the latest time it will get dark here, before the nights start drawing in again. It's still just about light enough that you could walk down an unlit path without torchlight, without bumping into a lampost, or cut the grass and still just be able to make out where you'd been.

Watching Glastoberry on the telly at the moment, still light there as well as here.

Cloud has quite an impact I notice.

Glastonberry tonight

Sunset: 9:30pm
Dusk: 10:15pm
Nightfall: 11:30pm

http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/uk/glastonbury

It was dark in Suffolk at 9.30 last night, lighter tonight.

Me

Sunset: 9:45pm
Dusk: 10:35pm
Nightfall: 12:20pm

http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/uk/clitheroe

Just out of interest, Nightfall, is that when the Sky is at its darkest, after that does it slowly begin to get lighter again.

Say Sunrises at 5am, do we have something simular to Nightfall, couple of hours before sunrise

The clouds look quite spectacular, though it is starting to get quite dark down there. Whereas it's pretty grey skies here though there aren't any streetlights on yet.

It's still bright where I am but significantly duller than it would be if sunny.