With winter settling in, the sunsets are beginning to set at the earliest time they do all year. Today, Thursday, December 7, 2023, marks an undesirable day of the calendar year for Chicagoans as the sun will set just after 4:19 pm.
It will then keep setting at 4:19 pm through to Friday, December 15 when it will gradually start to set later.
That does not mean that today is the shortest day of the year in Chicago, however, as sunsets are becoming later at a quicker rate than sunsets are getting earlier.
That title goes to Thursday, December 21, in two weeks time, when the sun will rise at 7:14 am and set at 4:22 pm making the day length a grand total of 9 hours, 7 minutes, and 44 seconds.
Worry not, a Chicago day length will never drop below nine hours of daylight though we will have to wait until the first day of February for Chicago to see 10 hours of daylight again.
If it makes you feel better, in one of Chicago’s sister cities Gothenburg, Sweden, the sun rose today at 8:39 am and set at 3:27 pm making the total day 6 hours, 48 minutes, and 12 seconds. (We tried).
By the end of January (January 28 to be exact), the sun will begin setting in Chicago at 5 pm again and then on March 17, Chicago will see its first 7 pm sunset of 2024 thanks to the clocks changing forward one hour.
May 11 will then welcome Chicago’s first 8 pm sunset before the longest day of the year on June 20 sees a sunset of 8:29 pm and a total day length of 15 hours, 13 minutes, and 41 seconds.
[Featured image from Shutterstock]