This coming Wednesday is the shortest day of the year daylight-wise, so I was surprised last week when it seemed that the days were getting longer. Someone more science-minded than me explained that it wasn’t just my imagination. While the total amount of daylight continues to diminish until Wednesday, sunset already is getting later in the day. To corroborate, I found a site with sunrise/sunset times.

On December 1, the sun rose at 6:53 am and set at 4:13 pm, giving us 9 hours and 20 minutes of daylight. Today, the sun will rise at 7:09 am, which is 18 minutes later than the sunrise time on December 1. This afternoon, the sun will set at 4:14 pm which is 1 minute later than the sunset time on December 1. So while it’s staying darker for longer in the morning, it’s also staying lighter later in the afternoon. Today we will have 9 hours and 5 minutes of daylight, making the “day” fifteen minutes shorter than it was three weeks ago.

On Wednesday – the shortest day of the year – sunrise is at 7:10 am and sunset is at 4:15 pm, giving us just 9 hours and 5 minutes of daylight (December 21st beats the 19th by a few seconds even though when you round it to minutes, they are the same). For those of you thinking ahead to New Year’s Eve, the sun will rise at 7:13 am (later than it does on the shortest day of the year!) but it won’t set until 4:21, providing a whopping 9 hours and 8 minutes of daylight. Plan accordingly.