But the winter solstice is also the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the gap between sunrise and sunset is at its minimum. This means that on Saturday, the sun will rise at 7:10 a.m. and set at 4:14 p.m., giving New Englanders only 9 hours, 4 minutes and 35 seconds of daylight.
How much daylight does Boston gain each day?
Click the displayed date to select a new one and see how much additional daylight you’ll gain compared to today.
While giving us the fewest hours of sunlight, the winter solstice also represents the inflection point where we lose and gain sunlight. So starting on Sunday, Dec. 22, we will slowly begin to gain back our daylight – first in the afternoon, then after early January, in the morning as well.
The rate of this daylight increase will grow over time, reaching a maximum near the spring equinox (March 20, 2025) – when the sun appears directly above the equator giving us roughly 12 hours of daylight – before slowly heading back toward zero at the summer solstice (June 20, 2025). And then the whole process begins again.
Keep in mind, the earliest and latest sunrises and sunsets do not fall on the solstices. Because of the elliptical orbit of the Earth, the earliest sunset is actually around Dec. 8 (at 4:11 p.m.) and the latest sunrise is around Jan. 4. The latest sunset is around June 26 and the earliest sunrise around June 14.
Here’s how much additional daylight Boston gains (and loses) each day
Boston adds the most daylight per day in March – nearly three minutes – and the city loses daylight at the fastest pace in late September.
To understand the winter solstice and all the seasons a little better, try this exercise. Take a pencil in your right hand and make a fist with your left. Your fist represents the sun; the pencil is the Earth. Keep the point of the pencil upright and tilt it toward your fist. Now you’re at the summer solstice.
Notice that the point is directed at your fist. The other end of the pencil, the eraser, is tilted away – that’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
Now keeping the pencil in the same position, move the pencil to the left, on the other side of the sun (first). Notice the point is now pointed away, that’s where we are, at the winter solstice, when we’re getting the least amount of daylight.
Because the Earth is tilted at 23½ degrees, we get our seasons and the huge temperature differences between them. Interestingly, our orbit and the angle at which the Earth is tilted do change over millennia and these changes can be responsible for things like Ice Ages.
How daylight saving time affects the distribution of sunlight
Just as Boston is rapidly gaining daylight in March, daylight saving time kicks in, shifting an hour of daylight to the end of the day. Click or hover over a bar to see details.
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