We’ve officially entered that time of year when the days feel incredibly short. Back on June 21—the longest day of the year—we enjoyed 14 hours and 56 minutes of daylight. As of today (November 19), we’re down to 9 hours and 54 minutes.
If shorter days aren’t your favorite, I have some good news: we don’t lose much more daylight from here. On the winter solstice (December 21), our daylight bottoms out at 9 hours and 24 minutes—only 30 minutes less than now, with most of that loss happening in the morning. Today’s sunset is at 4:48 p.m., and even at the earliest sunset of the year on December 7, it will only shift to 4:43 p.m. Not too bad!
And if you need some perspective, consider this: the city of Utqiaġvik, Alaska just saw its last sunset of the year. Yes, really—the sun won’t rise above the horizon there again until January 22 at 1:23 p.m. Can you imagine going more than two months without seeing the sun? I know I can’t!
