Days are getting longer with earlier sunrises and later sunsets

 

You may have noticed that our days are getting slightly longer each day. As we head into the new year and further away from the winter solstice, sunrises get earlier, and sunsets get later.

Today, on January 9th, the sun rose at 8:11 AM and will set tonight at 5:32 PM, meaning we will be seeing 9 hours and 21 minutes of daylight. Just 1 month from now, on February 9th, our day will be approximately 1 hour longer. On March 9th, 2 months from now, daylight will be 2 hours and 16 minutes longer than today.

We know that we're picking up close to an hour over the next month, but how much daylight are we seeing more of each day? Well, it depends on what point in the month we're looking at.

Today, we'll see 1 minute and 13 seconds more daylight than yesterday. Early January generally brings around 1 minute and 15 seconds each day, but by late January, we'll be seeing around 2 minutes more daylight per day.

The amount of daylight we see is related to the sun angle, which tells us how high the sun sits in the sky - the greater the angle, the higher the sun is. Sun angle is also related to how much sunlight we see and how long our days are.

Our sun angle right now is still small at only 26°, but by March 9th, we'll be seeing a much higher sun angle of 44°, resulting in a longer day.

If these short winter days have been getting you down, you can start looking forward to less darkness each day and longer days than nights starting in mid-March.