The Chicago area is seeing its shortest days of the year, but when will we finally start seeing more daylight and skip commuting home in the dark?
Long answer short, you won’t have to wait long for the first part, but the second part will still take some time.
The Chicago area has now seen its earliest sunset of the year, and the sun will begin noticeably setting later beginning on Friday, when the sunset time moves from 4:19 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.
Despite the change in sunset time, days are still technically getting shorter, as the region is losing just under 30 seconds of daylight per day through the winter solstice, which falls on Dec. 21.
On that date, the city of Chicago will get just under nine hours and eight minutes of daylight, but even after the solstice, things aren’t going to improve quickly. For example, on Dec. 22 the area will gain less than one second of daylight, according to officials.
Slowly but surely, days will start getting longer, but it’ll be January before you’ll notice enough improvement. By Jan. 28, the Chicago area will finally be back to sunsets occurring after 5 p.m., and a few days later, the city will see more than 10 hours of daylight for the first time since Nov. 10, 2023.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
