The day · Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Night
Sun 15.4° below the horizon, in the west · West African Coast & Guinean Forest
Conditions
Rain
Intermittent rain. Earthworms surface, slugs are active, mushrooms begin to fruit within two to seven days, and rivers become turbid.
Check mushroom sites two to seven days from now. Keep off wet beds to avoid compacting them.
The day, phase by phase
Current phase · 19:07–05:33
10h 26m
Night
Current sun position. Maximum altitude today: 79.6°.
No solar input at all. What happens now runs on stored heat, on the moon, and on the animals that evolved to work while nothing can see them.
Fish active
Little fish activity in this phase.
Run-off colours the water and washes in food. Fish the inflows and current seams.
Garden species active
Ground beetlebest now
Running the soil surface after dark, taking slugs, cutworms and larvae. One of the best predators a garden has.
Earthwormbest now
At the surface after dark and in wet weather, pulling leaves down into the burrow.
Slugsbest now
Out on everything, feeding hardest between midnight and first light, and all day when it is wet.
Slugs feed through the day as well as at night, and blight spreads in warm, wet air.
Inactive in this phase
Honey bee · Lady beetle
Interactive
The Earth's rotation and the day at Port Harcourt
Rotate the Earth, or use the arrows, to follow the location from sunrise to noon, sunset and night. One full rotation is one day.
Night at home
Still dark. Keep turning — home is coming round toward the sunlight.
One whole turn = 24 hours
Turn to:
Seen from above the North Pole, the Earth turns anticlockwise — west to east — so the Sun comes up in the east. One whole turn takes 24 hours.
Say it like this
- Age 2“Round and round! Where is our house? Is it day or night?”
- Age 4“When our house turns toward the Sun, it's day. When it turns away, it's night.”
- Age 6“The Sun doesn't really move across the sky — we do, riding on the turning Earth. How many hours does one whole turn take?”
Go outside: Stand in the same spot at breakfast, lunch and supper and point to where the Sun is — never look straight at it. It moves from east to west because we are turning.
Local guide
Gardening, fishing and foraging for Port Harcourt this week.
West African Coast & Guinean Forest
The ecological region and its species.
Almanac
Day length, the moon, and air and water temperature through the year.
For Kids · The land and the sky
The week ahead for Port Harcourt
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