Summer down there, such as it is. Clocks are complicated though: Antarctica's Weird Time Zones Map == I was advised by a there-going person to bring cigars, were I ever to visit. Probably will not but I'm just sharing.
"That puts the continent on every line of longitude — and, in theory, in every single timezone." That map's legend shows just 11 of the 24 'natural' timezones. Though my Win10 PC shows 37 different timezone offset choices, not counting the many repeats that cover different summer time adjustment schedules. 14 zones west of Greenwich, 22 zones east. 27 zones have integer hours offsets from UTC (3 overlaps near the International Date Line due to different calendar choices), and 10 have fractional hour offsets (7 have n:30 offsets, 3 have n:45 offsets).
You've sparked some debate with me and the missus. For example: On the longest day of the year in Antarctica (yesterday, btw), would the sun be roughly 23.5 degrees above the horizon, and circle you over the course of 24 hour, never noticeably higher/lower? That seriously messes up the concept of day and night.
Depends on where in Antarctica you are; it's pretty big. A map shows it almost all within the antarctic circle, but pretty much right out to it for much of its 'coast'line. Your "never noticeably higher/lower" would apply if you were right at the pole. Elsewhere, it would wobble some. If you were right out at the edge of the circle, it would skim the horizon at midnight and be 47° up at noon.
I grew up near 64°N; just a bit south of the Arctic circle. If it's all you know, it feels normal. I do remember when I started taking traveling work, I was a bit unnerved by how fast the sun appeared to rise and set at equatorial latitudes.
Here's one map Antarctic Circle - Wikipedia I guess all 26 time zones converge at the pole, so yeah, it's complicated gettin the time at any one place on the continent. According to timeanddate.com there are 8 time zones currently in use by research stations within the antarctic circle. Time Zones in Antarctica
Our Pacific NW city is only ~16° farther south - and after living mostly in soCal - it seems weird both during the summer AND winter solstice .... as the sun just seems to creep along the horizon before it finally comes up. .
Plants 'make hay while the sun shines' so to speak (although that specifically refers to drying of hay). I have needed to know daylight hours across latitudes for research on plants. It varies just as wiki and other encyclopedias say. If you guess where the most hours of daylight occur (latitudinally speaking), I expect you to be wrong. As I was. For now I hold that as a little-known factoid. Factette. Antarctica stands tall as the most time-zone-rich landmass; our local starting point. China has only one despite its bigness. If these help you win bar bets it's all to the good. Time zones arose with train travel; that seems well known. I wonder though, what is the narrowest country (longitudinally speaking) with the most time zones? == Antarctica stands short in terms of biological diversity (now) but has coal deposits hither and yon. It moved from ~tropics to current oddness by way of plate tectonics. That being right up there among earthly oddities. It is a fine and fascinating planet. May current long nights in the North provide ample time for reflection.
