# Delayed sunrise in Panama **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 20, 2021, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649 "2021-11-20T00:39:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/1 "2021-11-20T00:39:11Z")
It is now 7:36 in Panama. It is still pitch dark, despite the fact that sunrise is listed at 6:13. I’ve been awake at 6 AM for weeks, and it was getting light. Anyone else seeing this? ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/2 "2021-11-20T00:44:57Z")
It’s p.m.? ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/3 "2021-11-20T00:47:27Z")
Yes. It’s evening. Which leads me to ask, is everything ok? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/4 "2021-11-20T00:56:37Z")
Yes, this happens to me now and then. I always think of that _Twilight Zone_ episode. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/5 "2021-11-20T01:32:07Z")
Badly overcast? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/6 "2021-11-20T01:33:47Z")
I have been on a strange schedule and weird medicine. But it should have been light at 6:13 last night. Also, the people I asked about “sunrise” didn’t clarify. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/7 "2021-11-20T01:59:07Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > Badly overcast? A cab driver suggested this (rather than the obvious suggestion that I had confused AM and PM), but I could see the moon and stars. Most of my clocks don’t show AM or PM. My phone does, so I should have looked at that. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/8 "2021-11-20T02:05:33Z")
My husband insists that as much as possible, we need clocks that use 24-hour time. Might that be helpful? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/9 "2021-11-20T02:42:12Z")
Maybe he looking out over the Atlantic for the sunrise. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/10 "2021-11-20T03:26:55Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Maybe he looking out over the Atlantic for the sunrise.. The sun rises out of the Pacific where I live. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/11 "2021-11-20T03:28:26Z")
This thread is… disorienting. What next? A border crossing where you travel south into Canada from the US? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/12 "2021-11-20T03:28:55Z")
Hence the joke based on looking over the Atlantic in Panama would result in not seeing the sunrise. Yet most places in North/South America the Sun does rise over the Atlantic, so someone may think that applies everywhere in North/South America - even Panama. So like the person goes to Panama and looks out over the Atlantic. But they don’t see the sunrise. And they say, “Hey, I’m looking over the Atlantic but I don’t see the sunrise.” Because it’s rising over the Pacific. And the Pacific is not the same ocean as the Atlantic. That’s why it’s a joke. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/13 "2021-11-20T03:37:50Z")
I’m not sure how well the joke holds up. Either Panama has no Atlantic coast (being the Caribbean and all), in which case you couldn’t possibly look out over the Atlantic from Panama, or you very much can see East into the Atlantic from _some_ parts of Panama (assuming we treat the Caribbean as part of the Atlantic). ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/14 "2021-11-20T03:46:02Z")
If you were to divide Panama into quarters from west to east and the middle going through Panama City, the second quarter (i.e. that directly west of Panama City) [looks east over the Pacific while the Atlantic/Carribean is north](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Panama/@8.4514364,-80.4862207,9z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8fa61583c8be2be3:0x79eee04d1fa59bcf!8m2!3d8.537981!4d-80.782127). ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/15 "2021-11-20T04:16:32Z")
I don’t know what the “joke” is supposed to be. Panama runs generally east-west in an irregular shape. There is a large swath of the coastline that looks east over the Gulf of Panama in the Pacific Ocean. There are other parts where you would look east over the Caribbean Sea. As to the OP, I have a few times myself, when keeping very odd hours, woken up and momentarily confused AM and PM. I hate digital devices that could so easily indicate AM or PM but don’t, because it’s supposed to be “obvious”. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/16 "2021-11-20T04:34:25Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I don’t know what the “joke” is supposed to be. Almost everywhere near the Atlantic coast in North & South America, you would see the Sun rise over the Atlantic. Many people think that **everywhere** near the Atlantic coast in North & South America, you would see the Sun rise over the Atlantic. There are areas in Panama that the Sun rises over the Pacific so if you are looking over the Atlantic and not the Pacific in those areas, you would not see the Sun rise. So the joke is that he lives in one of those areas and was looking over the Atlantic (thinking the Sun always rises over the Atlantic) and couldn’t see the Sun rising not knowing he was in an area where the Sun rises over the Pacific. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/17 "2021-11-20T04:55:06Z")
But if the sun rises over the Pacific in his part of Panama, he won’t be able to see the Atlantic, and if he’s looking _towards_ the Atlantic then he will still see the sunrise. Over analysed joke fail. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/18 "2021-11-20T06:17:42Z")
See, now there I don’t know. Panama is sufficiently narrow in places that one might conceivably, from a sufficient height (perhaps achievable by natural terrain, or perhaps even a tall building) see both the Atlantic and the Pacific from the same point simply by turning about. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/19 "2021-11-20T06:28:41Z")
Maybe. But in that case you won’t see the sun rise over the Pacific. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2021, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649/20 "2021-11-20T07:48:53Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > That’s why it’s a joke. In [Santa Barbara](https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4124656,-119.6923715,12.58z?hl=en&authuser=0) I’ve watched the moon rise over the Pacific a number of times. Not the sun, though. I’m too lazy for that. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/delayed-sunrise-in-panama/954649.md?page=2)