Dimming Days: Understanding the Sunlight’s Shift as the Fall Nears

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - In the United States, we have been losing sunlight since the summer equinox on June 21. At first, we were losing daylight slowly, but now, the timeline has sped up. As we approach the autumnal equinox, we are losing two minutes of daylight per day. When the Autumnal Equinox occurs, we see an equal amount of daylight and nighttime.

Our last 8 p.m. sunset occurred on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. In the span of only 45 days, we will have lost over an hour and a half of sunlight, making our last 7 p.m. sunset occur on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. Once Daylight Savings Time ends in early Nov., sunrises will occur around 6:30 a.m., with sunsets being closer to 5:15 p.m..

The Autumnal Equinox will occur on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023, which marks roughly 12 hours of sunlight. Our shortest day of the year will occur on the Winter Solstice (Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023). Monroe will see sunrise around 7:04 a.m. and sunset around 5:07 p.m., totaling 10 hours and three minutes of daylight. After December 21, the days start getting longer again.