3 ms·

Hmm, I wonder if it's that us Mediterranean people have an easier transitional period and have learned to pace ourselves. I'll go out for a walk without sunscre

Hmm, I wonder if it's that us Mediterranean people have an easier transitional period and have learned to pace ourselves. I'll go out for a walk without sunscreen, but I'll definitely put it on if I go to the beach, when I'm going to be in the sea for an hour without a shirt on. Most people here are pretty tan unless they spend all day in an office.

saiya-jin 5y ago
Which is fine for Mediterranean, but ie rest of europe looks exactly opposite - pale white from late autumn till late spring, very little to no sun exposure per day, sometimes nothing for a week or longer. And then super intense exposure over vacation or sunny weekends. I am not even talking about long hours in the office or covid lockdowns, just regular situation. When its colder then logically people dress more. Add more pale skin by default, meaning less genetic predisposition for good long term protection and the result is what we see.
- StavrosK 5y ago
  Is that because of cloud cover? Why does it suddenly get much sunnier?
  - egman_ekki 5y ago
    e.g. in Scandinavia you get an hour or sunshine per day in December, and that's at a very low degree above the horizon. In July, you can get more than 12 hours of sunshine per day. And that's for Copenhagen, don't ask about Stockholm...
    - StavrosK 5y ago
      Yes but it doesn't go from an hour a day on March 20th to 12 hours a day on March 21st, it's a gradual lengthening. The GP said that it goes from not sunny at all to very sunny suddenly.
      - dagw 5y ago
        The big contributor is vacations. As flights and hotels have gotten cheaper and cheaper it is more and more common to take 1-2 weeks in places like Thailand or Bali or Dubai in the winter. So people are going from no sun on their body for 4 month, to spending 10+ hours a day in a bathing suit in extremely intense sun.

3 ms·

Hmm, I wonder if it's that us Mediterranean people have an easier transitional period and have learned to pace ourselves. I'll go out for a walk without sunscre

by StavrosK 5y ago

saiya-jin 5y ago
Which is fine for Mediterranean, but ie rest of europe looks exactly opposite - pale white from late autumn till late spring, very little to no sun exposure per day, sometimes nothing for a week or longer. And then super intense exposure over vacation or sunny weekends. I am not even talking about long hours in the office or covid lockdowns, just regular situation. When its colder then logically people dress more. Add more pale skin by default, meaning less genetic predisposition for good long term protection and the result is what we see.
- StavrosK 5y ago
  Is that because of cloud cover? Why does it suddenly get much sunnier?
  - egman_ekki 5y ago
    e.g. in Scandinavia you get an hour or sunshine per day in December, and that's at a very low degree above the horizon. In July, you can get more than 12 hours of sunshine per day. And that's for Copenhagen, don't ask about Stockholm...
    - StavrosK 5y ago
      Yes but it doesn't go from an hour a day on March 20th to 12 hours a day on March 21st, it's a gradual lengthening. The GP said that it goes from not sunny at all to very sunny suddenly.
      - dagw 5y ago
        The big contributor is vacations. As flights and hotels have gotten cheaper and cheaper it is more and more common to take 1-2 weeks in places like Thailand or Bali or Dubai in the winter. So people are going from no sun on their body for 4 month, to spending 10+ hours a day in a bathing suit in extremely intense sun.