These Are Lower Manhattan's Darkest Neighborhoods

CHELSEA, NY — Lower Manhattanites are likely to find themselves craving vitamin D this winter, according to a new study on which neighborhoods get less sunlight during the winter.

It's no surprised that Manhattan's looming monoliths and glass towers have left neighborhoods across the borough light-deprived, but a new report shows Lower Manhattan and Midtown take the hardest hit during the winter months.

Localize.city data scientists analyzed Geographic Information Systems to determine which New York City neighborhoods get the most and the least direct sunlight in the coldest months of the year, according to the report released on Friday.

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"Access to sunlight has very real implications for health and wellness," researchers noted. "In the late fall and winter months, those with Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, know all too well how the darker days bring on depressive symptoms, listless feelings and increased moodiness."

Manhattan is home to the top 10 darkest neighborhoods in the city. In fact, 27 of the top 30 darkest neighborhoods are in Manhattan.

Midtown buildings, for example, only receive an hour of direct sunlight a day, on average, during the winter. Its neighbors — East Midtown, Midtown South and Nomad — are the city’s next darkest neighborhoods in winter, noted researchers at Localize.

Manhattan’s darkest neighborhoods in winter:

• MidtownEast
• MidtownMidtown
• SouthNomad
• Financial District
• TriBeCa
• Upper East Side
• Flatiron
• Hell’s Kitchen
• Upper West Side

At the moment, Manhattan's sunniest neighborhood is Hudson Yards, but that is expected to change with the handful of skyscraper slated to reshape the area.

Manhattan’s sunniest neighborhoods in winter:

• Hudson Yards
• Roosevelt Island
• Peter Cooper Village
• Marble Hill
• Inwood
• Hudson Square
• East Harlem
• Battery Park City
• Lower East Side
• Stuyvesant Town

Check out the citywide findings on Localize.city.

Patch Field Editor Kathleen Culliton contributed to this report.

Photo courtesy of Mario Tama/Getty Images