Moscow Sees Only 6 Minutes Of Sunlight During All Of December
The city experienced the darkest month in its recorded history in December. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with reporter Charles Maynes, who lived through those nearly sunless weeks.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Think you're having a long, dark winter? Well, spare a thought for the poor residents of Moscow who in December endured the darkest month in that city's recorded history - six minutes of sunlight. I'll repeat that - six minutes the entire month of December. Well, we couldn't help wondering what that was like to live through, and Moscow reporter Charles Maynes, who endured the darkness, is on the line now from Moscow. Hey there, Charles. ...
KELLY: This was, to be clear, six minutes all at once, one blinding flash, or was it meted out a few seconds over a number of days?
MAYNES: Oh, it was painfully meted out over a number of days. And yeah, so it was - you could enjoy just every 30 seconds or so as it came by.
KELLY: What is typical for December in Moscow? How much sunlight do you usually get?
MAYNES: Well, you know, Moscow isn't exactly known as a sunny destination in December. Usually we get around 18 hours of sunlight for the month. Just to put a little perspective, the previous record in terms of lack of sunlight was just a whopping three hours. So in a sense, this year just destroyed it of course with six minutes. ...