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Lack of sunshine hits our mood

(Bild: Black Brush )

November was extremely cloudy in large parts of Upper Austria, with the sun finding it difficult to prevail against the clouds, especially in the lowlands. December is off to another foggy and cold start - and that has an impact on our mood.

Cold and gray - that's how December started. And that's after November was also very sunless in large parts of the country. "There was clearly too little sunshine and precipitation. It looks like there will be relatively little sunshine in December too," says Josef Haslhofer, meteorologist at GeoSphere Austria. Micheldorf was particularly in the "fog soup" in November with only 28 hours of sunshine, Kremsmünster with 34 and Linz with 40 hours of sunshine.

"Happy cocktail" currently missing
Reichenau im Mühlkreis (67 hours), Windischgarsten (89) and the Feuerkogel (143) were above the fog cover. This week we can expect the sunniest phase on Thursday afternoon, but it won't last long either. So it's no wonder that the lack of sunshine is affecting our mood: sunlight releases a cocktail of the happiness hormones serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline - which is currently in short supply.