Solstice occurred a few days ago, marking the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and the longest in the southern hemisphere. From here out, days get longer in the north and shorter in the south until the next solstice in June.
So sticking to the northern hemi for simplicity's sake, it would stand to reason that on the day after the solstice, the sun rises a little earlier, and sets a little later - which certainly matters to rowers given our general reliance on daylight to go about our pastime.
However, the unique way the Earth wobbles results in something quite different; as it goes, where I live, the sun will continue to rise later until a few days into January, almost stalling for a week starting on January 2. Here are the numbers from winter 2021 here:
- December 16: 7:15am
- December 17: 7:16am
- December 18: 7:16am
- December 19: 7:17am
- December 20: 7:17am
- December 21: 7:18am
- December 22: 7:18am
- December 23: 7:19am
- December 24: 7:19am
- December 25: 7:20am
- December 26: 7:20am
- December 27: 7:20am
- December 28: 7:21am
- December 29: 7:21am
- December 30: 7:21am
- December 31: 7:21am
- January 1: 7:21am
- January 2: 7:22am
- January 3: 7:22am
- January 4: 7:22am
- January 5: 7:22am
- January 6: 7:22am
- January 7: 7:22am
- January 8: 7:21am
and then the sun starts rising earlier each day.
Sunset behaves in the opposite fashion:
- The earliest sunset was way back around December 8, at 4:32pm
- Today (Solstice) it is already three minutes later, at 4:35pm
- By January 8, when sunrise starts getting earlier as above, sunset will be at 4:49pm
That's the way the world wobbles - so you can sleep in for a couple more weeks.
01/11/2013 10:45:34 AM
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php