Norwegian Town Finds Its Way Out Of The Winter Darkness

I don't know about you, but I really am dreading the darkness of winter.

Mirrors on the mountains direct a patch of reflected
sunlight onto the town square in Rjukan, Norway.  

I like daylight, and it's getting to the point where its dark too often. By December, it will seem like it's nightime all the time.  With the darkness comes the cold, too.

 It's a little depressing, frankly, but like (almost) everybody else, I'll get through it.

At least here in Vermont, we see glimpses of sun even in the cloudiest, darkest days of December when the days are shortest.

Up above the Arctic Circle, of course, there's weeks of darkness in the winter. Ugh.

And there's a town in Norway called Rjukan, where the lack of sun is particularly frustrating in the winter. It's in a deep mountain valley, so when the sun is at a low angle in the winter, they can see the light shining on the mountaintops, but the sun never reaches the valley.

So close, and yet so far. The town does have a cable car that residents can use to go up the mountains and see the sun.

Now, the town of Rjukan has an ingenious new idea for some sun. They've positioned mirrors on some of the hillsides, which reflects lights down on Rjukan's pretty town square, according to the Telegraph UK.

The sun is out in downtown Rjukan!

The Telegraph article says computers control the position of the mirrors, so that as the sun moves to different positions in the sky during the day and during the course of the winter, the mirrors adjust to make sure the sun keeps shining in the town square.

I don't know if the mirrors solve all the town's problems with a lack of sunshine, but at least it helps.

I know they tell us to stay out of the sun to avoid skin cancer, and that's great advice, but even fair skinned people need a little sun frequently to manufacture Vitamin D in their bodies. 

As I noted, the lack of sun in winter is a bit depressing, to the point where some people have a real problem with seasonal depression.

So, congratulations to Rjukan for finding at least a partial solution to its sunlight problem.