The earliest sunset of the year is today
At least, it’s that way where I live. Then it starts getting later again, even though the days continue to get shorter for a while.
It’s the sunsets I care about.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
I find the twelve minutes of Gustav Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite a bright uplift for such times: https://youtu.be/gIAV4eUO7C0
As an ex New Englander, I totally understand grasping for bit more daylight, even if there’s only 2minute difference in sunset between now and the solstice. If I remember, it wasn’t until late January that any real lengthening became noticeable. But that was offset by the still decreasing average temps.
It’s bad enough in Mass, CT, and RI. We have friends in northern NH, where they’ve had temps near zero. Same age as me, so I don’t understand how they still deal with it.
O/T https://x.com/i/status/1997833737720226239
Related:
“NJ Governor Murphy Using Last Months In Office To Free 31 Convicted Killers…And Promises Even More”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nj-governor-murphy-using-last-months-office-free-31-convicted-killersand-promises-even-more
Back in the day in New England, I got out at 6AM to hitch to work. Took about an hour to get to work. A stark, lovely pink sky in December, though I cannot recall at what time it began to turn pink. (I quit that job effective Jan 1, so I no longer experienced winter sunrises.)
Winter sky at night—a stark beauty. Cold, but worth it. Moonlight on the snow. Stars peeping out through the clouds.
In the nearly four decades since I left New England, I have been back occasionally in the winter. As long as you dress for the cold—which as a native I knew quite well how to do—the cold weather was fine. But I recall from my childhood that by mid to late February, I was tired of the cold. March was a horror, with the abrupt changes.
I am told that winters are not as cold as they used to be. IIRC, that began when I was living there, as the winter of 1972 featured snows that within a week got rained out, turning the landscape from white to brown. Repeatedly.
Gringo:
The average winter may be milder, but I certainly haven’t noticed it. And certain recent winters have been the worst I can remember, and I’ve been living in New England (with just one short exception) since 1969. About 7 or 8 years ago – I forget exactly – it was incredibly cold, and snowed every few days all winter. For the first time in my memory, the place I live had to cart the extra snow out to vacant lots or fields and dump it there, because otherwise the piles of snow on the sides of the street would have been 15 feet high.
Sunset at my location is 5:17 p.m. every night until Thursday, when we gain a minute with sunset at 5:18 p.m.
But you’re right. Sunrise is continuing to get a little later throughout the coming days. 7:30 a.m. by the end of the week.
I looked around for an explanation of why the earliest sunset is about four weeks before the latest sunrise, and found nothing I could understand. Just something about the Earth’s elliptical orbit shifting the time of “solar noon” (when the sun is at its highest point in the sky) by a few minutes. Also, much to my surprise, the closer you get to the equator the earlier is the date of the earliest sunset. So in Florida it’s something like November 29th.
On the 11th sunset time will creep up to 4:50. I would think it’s already creeping up by a few seconds.
By 12/31 it’s crept up to 5pm and from there one minute per day. By mid-January the longer afternoons are noticeable.
Yes, once you get into the tropics the earliest sunsets are in mid-November. Conversely, at far north latitudes it’s on or near the solstice.
it was incredibly cold
The coldest I recall in Massachusetts was -25F in the early 60’s, but that was only one morning. I also recall waiting for the school bus wearing a tee shirt when it was in the 20s. These days, 50F on down is coat weather.
I spent a few years living on the equator. The line almost ran through my yard. lol You could practicaly set your watch by sunrise and sunset, roughly 6:04 am or pm. I didn’t not like it at all, and rise and set happened so fast. My years in London had work hours of 8:00 – 5:00, and in December you only saw the sun through a window or if you went out for lunch. Of course, the long days of summer compensated for that.
I’m retired now back in the US in the Southern Appalachians, and I love the early sunsets of winter, and equally the lingering sunsets of summer. I love all 4 seasons and their peculiarities, the long days and the short, and a career spent mostly in the tropics has made me truly appreciate the uniqueness of each one.
The above was an obvious example why poultry and balloons do not mix!
Well, “as everyone knows”, sunlight is the best disinfectant…(or has sunlight also been neutralized by all the cascading, wall-to-wall noise…?)
“The Manufactured Rise of Nick Fuentes;
“How artificial virality tricked the platforms—and the press—into elevating a fringe voice.”—
https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KC1BKJFFF9ZW7QXQCWYMA58Y_7
H/T Mosaic Magazine
Cf. also, the relentless fake “information” tsunami engineered by Hamas and friends…
Actually, Mosaic’s on a roll (as is usually the case)…:
“…Hamas set a dangerous trap— What must the West do now”—
https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KC1BKJFFF9ZW7QXQCWYMA58Y_9
“‘He was one of the most remarkable writers who ever lived’…”—
https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KC1BKJFFF9ZW7QXQCWYMA58Y_13
“How the first Bible to include a map helped spread the idea of countries with borders”—
https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01KC1BKJFFF9ZW7QXQCWYMA58Y_15
Now, poultry and baboons, that’s entirely different.
Well om yes
Dueling reports from last week:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/03/new-england-warming
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/12/05/maine-set-record-low-temperatures-overnight/
This is the coldest December, so far, that I have experienced since moving to Maine 5 years ago. I’ve lived in New England (northeaster MA and now Maine) for my entire life; It’s all just variable weather that I am quite used to and comfortable with. You just have to dress appropriately. I went out for a walk this morning when the temp was showing 0 degrees F. No wind so that helped.
We are 12 days out from the Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year. I too take small comfort from the later sunset even though the days are still shortening.
My family lived in the UK from 1978-1983. What many don’t realize (and I wasn’t fully aware until later) is the UK is at about the same latitude as Hudson Bay, Canada. I say “about” because the Thames River valley (where we lived) is a bit south of that. Same latitude as Winnipeg or Vancouver.
England is pretty far north. During the summer it was light outside when we went to bed. And during the winter? When we came home from school in the afternoon it was dark. Eight hour days.
I live in Louisiana and went we visit my mom in Upstate New York we notice the difference. “It’s still light outside???”