Almanac - Dec 7

As someone who doesn't have the freedom to run in the middle of the day when there's some hope of sunshine, I am a little bit obsessed with weather and the seasons. At this time of year especially, I scrutinize sunrise and sunset times and try to squeeze some fair-weather runs into the limited daylight hours.

So today is a milestone of sorts in the progression from Fall to Winter and ultimately Spring. Today, December 7th, the sun will set at 4:11 p.m. in Boston. Never mind abut the seconds -- no one really cares about the seconds. Tomorrow, the sun will also set at 4:11 p.m. It will be the same on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and then -- next Tuesday, December 11th, the sunset will be one minute later, and the lengthening of the afternoon will have begun. For me, it will be the first step down the long, sometimes bleak corridor of winter.

Many people think that the earliest sunset happens on the shortest day of the year, the solstice, but this is not the case. The earliest sunrise occurs about 12 days before the solstice and the latest sunrise occurs about 12 days after the solstice. That means that the mornings will be getting later for another month!

Still, I'll trade the mornings for the afternoons any day. One of my favorite times of the year is the beginning of February, when sunset occurs after 5:00 p.m. for the first time in three months. Until then, I'll be happy knowing sunset is once again moving in the right direction.