The CIA has challenged people to solve a puzzle - can you work it out?

The CIA Twitter account often posts trivia puzzles to its 3.1 million followers on the platform, challenging people to a number of tasks and riddles. On Tuesday 1 December, the CIA account posted yet another #TuesdayTriva puzzle, garnering more than two thousand replies. Can you figure it out? What is the picture? The CIA tweeted, “#TuesdayTrivia Put your analysis to the test. What time is it in this photo?” The picture attached showed a snowy scene, with buildings, cars, school buses, trees and a ski lift. Respondents offered a number of theories to explain what time it is in the picture provided. One person wrote, “The cars in the parking lot have snow on hoods. Long shadows. Nobody’s skiing yet. Only 1 car on the road. No pedestrians. My initial guess was midnight in 1 of those climes where the sun’s up all year round in winter. Second guess would be as early as possible in the morning.” Another explained, “I would say it’s 7am because the streets have not been plowed yet, and seeing evergreen trees I bet they have snow plows and ample snow removal tools ready. I believe that if it was any other time of day the rads would be clearer since it is not currently snowing.” Someone else suggested, “In the upper northern latitudes (indicated by the scandinavian houses), in winter the sun isn’t even up by 7:00, and sets around 4:00. 3:00 is the best guess.” “7am. Long shadows, all cars parked with snow on their windows still. No pedestrian foot tracks, lights still on from the night (cause winter, sunlight comes later). Inactive ski lift,” wrote another user. The answer Alongside the picture was also a poll which people could vote in, with a choice of three answers: 3pm, which 33.9 per cent of people voted for11am, which 13 per cent of people voted for7am, which 53.1 per cent of people voted for The CIA followed up the original tweet, revealing that the answer is indeed 7am, by writing, “Most of you guessed correctly. Seems like you all have an eye for this. You should check out our careers page.” The tweet also contained a link to the CIA careers website, which outlines a number of jobs available at the CIA, including: Cyber Threat AnalystTargeting OfficerIT EngineerCartographerForeign Language Instructor While the follow up tweet from the CIA does not explain the answer, the question can actually be found on the Aerial Analysis Challenge on the CIA website. Here, it explains that it is 7am because “the streetlights are still on and the sun is casting shadows from the east.”