Sun will set before 7 p.m. as Philadelphia says goodbye to summer and hello to fall
Have you noticed the hours of daylight are shrinking more quickly as we transition from summer to fall?
The sun will set on Saturday at 6:59 p.m. That's the first sunset before 7 p.m. since March 3. There will only be 12 hours and 10 minutes of daylight on Saturday, which is nearly one hour less daylight than there was 24 days ago on Aug. 29.
The autumnal equinox, better known as the start of fall, takes place at 8:43 a.m. on Sunday in Philadelphia. This is one of two times each year that the earth is not tilted on its axis.
Instead, the equator directly faces the sun, and the entire planet receives equal hours of daylight and darkness. This also occurs at the vernal equinox, better known as the start of spring.
The days surrounding the equinox represent a time of equal daylight and darkness on earth. Rarely does that equality fall exactly on the start of fall or spring. This year the 12 hours of daylight and darkness for fall will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
Our hours of daylight will shorten even more quickly now as we head toward the start of winter on Dec. 21. That is when we have the least amount of daylight - only 9 hours and 19 minutes. A quick calculation shows a loss of 2 hours and 51 minutes from this weekend to the start of winter.
The good news is that following the first day of winter, we begin gaining hours of daylight more quickly.
By the way, daylight saving time ends on Nov. 3 and 1 hour of daylight is shifted from evening to morning leaving us with a much earlier sunrise at 6:33 a.m. and a much earlier sunset at 4:56 p.m. Although there is no loss of daylight hours, it still feels that way.
On the brighter side, spring begins on Thursday, March 20 at 5:01 a.m. and sunset that day is at 7:12 p.m. That's only a mere 181 days away!