Daylight Saving Time

Reed Anfinson

Publisher

Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends Sunday at 2 a.m. when clocks fall back an hour. As we lose an hour of sunlight in the evening, we gain an hour in the morning.

Saturday morning the sun will rise at 8:06, but with the change out of Daylight Saving Time, it rises at 7:07 Sunday morning. Sunset Saturday is at 6:09 in the evening, but slips back to 5:08 Sunday late afternoon.

As of Sunday, we have 10 hours and 0 minutes of daylight.

As we move toward the winter solstice Dec. 21, the days are getting continually shorter. We are losing about 3 minutes of sunlight a day, nearly 20 minutes a week. Through the month of November, the area loses 1 hour and 6 minutes of daylight. However, the rate of loss slows in December as we approach the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year.

By the winter solstice Dec. 21, the sun rises at 8:03 and sets at 4:41 for only 8 hours and 41 minutes of sunlight. That compares to a day length of 15 hours and 43 minutes at the summer solstice June 21. That is seven hours more sunlight. It won’t be until March 16 that we see an equal number of daylight hours and darkness hours.

Daylight Saving Time starts again March 9.

In addition to the shorter days, we are likely to see cloudier days ahead.

“The degree of cloudiness begins to increase, peaking during the month of November in Minnesota when two-thirds of the days are mostly cloudy and most of the remaining days are partly cloudy,” University of Minnesota Climatologist Mark Seeley says. “This produces a condition of highly diffused light rather than direct sunlight.”

There is less than a 40% chance of seeing the sun during November and perfectly clear days are almost unheard of, Seeley writes in his weekly Weather Talk column.  “In this regard then, we not only lose day length (or quantity of light), but we also lose out on direct sunlight (or the quality of light).” 

Elbow Lake Daylight Saving Time Change

Date Sunrise Sunset Sunlight

Nov. 2 8:06 6:09 10 hrs 3 min

Nov. 3 7:07 5:08 10 hrs 0 min

Dec. 21 8:03 4:41   8 hrs 41 min

June 21 5:33 9:16 15 hrs 43 min

Minnesota is 406 miles long, which means those living in Angle Inlet, the northern most point in the state, see more daylight in the summer and less in the winter than those living in Worthington and other southern border cities.

Sunday, those living in the Elbow Lake area will see 10 hours of sunlight. However, those living in Angle Inlet, in far northern Minnesota, will see only 9 hours and 38 minutes. Those living in Luverne, in far southern Minnesota, will have 10 hours and 5 minutes of sunlight.

Sunrise and Sunset Nov. 4 Across Minnesota

Sunrise and Sunset Nov. 4

City Sunrise Sunset Sunlight

Luverne 7:03 5:06 10 hrs 5 min

Elbow Lake 7:08 5:07 10 hrs 0 min

Angle Inlet 7:15 4:51 9 hrs 38 min