Sunset on the Winter Solstice

Today’s sunset is at 4:24 PM.

As today is the first day of calendar winter, it is the shortest day of the year.

However, it is not the day with the earliest sunset. The earliest sunset of the year was December 6 through December 11, when the sunset at 4:21 PM.

Tomorrow will only be a fraction of a second longer, but we will be seeing a slightly later sunset, around 4:25 PM. We gain 4 seconds of daylight on Wednesday, then 18 seconds more daylight on Thursday. The length of day grows at an accelerating rate until we reach the first day of spring on March 21st.

Sunset on January 1st is 4:31 PM. By January 26th, the sunset will be at 5 PM. Civil twilight by January 1st already shifts to 5:04 PM, so we will have a little bit of light by the time you get out of work.