Daylight is fleeting as fall approaches in Pennsylvania. How early will it get dark?
With Labor Day in the rear-view mirror and school in session, summer has just about come to an end. While practically everyone loves the colorful leaves and cooler temperatures the fall season brings, shorter days can put a damper on things.
The autumnal equinox falls Saturday, Sept. 23 this year to mark the first official day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere, the National Weather Service reports. Once the season is in full swing, the length of days in Pennsylvania will shorten more and more.
Here’s what you can expect in Centre County as autumn arrives.
What is the autumnal equinox?
This fall’s equinox marks one of several celestial phenomenons observed on Earth each year as the planet orbits around the sun, NASA explains.
Equinoxes, or instances in which the sun shines directly over the equator and produces near-equal amounts of day and night throughout most of the world, occur twice in the year, usually in March (spring) or September (fall or autumn). Solstices, meanwhile, occur when the sun appears to reach its most northern or southern positions relative to the equator, resulting in an unusually long day (in June) or night (in December).
For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the aptly named autumnal equinox signals the first day of fall. Due to Earth’s tilted axis and orbit around the sun, the Northern Hemisphere will gradually receive less and less sunlight as fall leads into winter.
Equinoxes and solstices mark holidays for countless cultures across the globe. For example, the autumnal equinox often neighbors key Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, while the Korean harvest festival Chuseok traditionally falls in the middle or end of September, National Geographic writes.
How will Pennsylvania’s sunlight change this fall?
As summer draws to a close, Pennsylvania will receive less and less daylight.
State College, for example, will receive roughly 12 hours and 18 minutes of sunlight Tuesday before the sun sets at about 7:13 p.m., according to Time and Date, a Norway-based online world clock. Those daylight hours will shrink by about three minutes per day as the fall season continues.
By Oct. 1, for example, State College’s day will shrink to about 11 hours and 46 minutes. That figure drops even further by Nov. 1, when the area is expected to receive only about 10 hours and 26 minutes of light before sunset. By the time clocks fall back as daylight saving time ends Nov. 5, the State College area’s day tops out just more than 10 hours.
Once the winter solstice rolls around in late December, State College’s daylight totals will bottom out at around nine hours and 15 minutes.
This story was originally published September 19, 2023 at 2:26 PM.
%202.JPG)