Tired of commuting in the dark? Here’s when PA will start seeing longer days
If the early sunset is getting you down, you won’t have to wait much longer for a bit more daylight during your evening commute.
The sun will set over Centre County at 4:44 p.m. until Sunday, Dec. 14, meaning the next week or so will see the earliest sunset of the year. The Northern Hemisphere’s shortest day will be Sunday, Dec. 21, the winter solstice.
The sun will rise later and later until early January, but the sun will set later starting Dec. 14.
After the solstice — when Earth’s tilt creates the longest or shortest day for either the Northern or Southern hemisphere — the area will gain a minute or two of daylight every day until Sunday, June 21, the summer solstice, when the daylight clock will start ticking downward again.
The area won’t see the evening commute start after sunset until Wednesday, Jan. 7, when it will start at 5 p.m. for the first time since early November. Friday, Feb. 27 is the point at which the sun starts setting at 6 p.m., a sunset time similar to late September.
Centre County’s earliest school bus pickup times — around 6:30 a.m. — won’t take place during daylight hours until March, about when daylight saving time ends.
