SEATTLE — For those of you dreading the Big Dark of winter in Washington, this is good news: This week saw the last 4 p.m. sunsets until November.
On Jan. 25, the sun set at 4:59 p.m. for the Seattle area, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Thursday records approximately 9 hours and 15 minutes of daylight after the sun rose at 7:44 a.m.
Portland, however, saw its first 5 p.m. sunset on Jan. 21. Bellingham won't see its first 5 p.m. sunset until this weekend.
The timing of your sunset depends on how far north you are from the equator.
Back in November 2023, the sunset in Seattle jumped from 5:47 p.m. on Nov. 4 to 4:45 p.m. the following day on Nov. 5 with the ending of daylight saving time, according to timeanddate.com.
Since then, Washingtonians experienced fewer and fewer amounts of daylight until the shortest day of the year – and the first official day of winter – on Dec. 21 with just 8 hours and 25 minutes of daylight.
For Seattle, the first 5 p.m. sunset is Friday, Jan. 26. The sun rises at 7:43 a.m., providing 9 hours and 17 minutes of daylight.
Sunsets will continue to arrive later in the evening until November. The longest day of the year – the summer solstice on June 20 – is estimated to provide 15 hours and 59 minutes of daylight with a sunrise at 5:11 a.m. and sunset at 9:10 p.m.
In November, sunsets return to the 4 p.m. hour on Monday, Nov. 3 with the changing of the clocks for daylight saving time.
A new bill is under consideration in the Washington state Legislature to move to daylight saving time year-round, which would keep later sunsets in the summer, but the change would be more noticeable in the winter months.
Authored by Sen. Mike Padden (R-Spokane Valley), the bill discusses negative public health impacts resulting from the one-hour switch. If the bill passes, the uniform time act would go into effect on Nov. 4 later this year.
If you’re anxious for the season of blooms and the gradual warm up of spring weather, there’s more good news. The final day of winter is March 19, 2024, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
“Seasons are caused by the fact that the Earth is tilted on its axis by 23.5 degrees,” according to NWS. “The tilt's orientation with respect to space does not change during the year; thus, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun in June and away from the sun in December.”