Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for December 13, 2014
December 12, 2014
December 14, 2014
Transcript:
Arlo: The days will seem to get longer from today. Janis: Are you sure about that? Arlo: Starting this week, the sun will set later! Janis: But... Arlo: The days will get shorter until the solstice, but the sun will rise later! Janis: Well, I call that a win-win!
But Arlo is talking about true solar noon… the moment the sun is at its highest point of the day.It fools people who pay really close attention to sunset time, into thinking the days are already getting longer…
Solar noon varies day by day, due to the Earth’s tilt, and according to latitude, so it’s not necessarily when our clocks say noon.
The length of the daylight gets shorter as the solstice approaches…but solar noon, in the middle of those hours, moves a few minutes later each day…
Tiny differences, but depending upon where you live, you have probably already seen, or are about to see, the earliest sunset of the year.Tomorrow the sun will probably rise a minute later, but then not set until a few moments later than it did today… because solar noon will also be a minute later.
So you’ll actually have some total seconds less of daylight…. but the CLOCK TIME of the sunrise and sunset might actually be a minute later.
Ok I just looked…. so as an example…where I am, by the solstice, the sun will already be rising four minutes later and setting two minutes later than it did today…
and then the actual daylight hours will start to lengthen too.
(And somebody said I wasn’t a nerd…. sigh….)