California is slipping into a chilly, darker season. Here’s how much daylight we lose each day

The end to Daylight Saving Time is just around the corner, indicating the days will slowly start to get cooler and darker much earlier.

The gradual change in weather is kick-started by the autumnal equinox, which according to the National Weather Service, is the result of longer hours of darkness.

This year, daylight saving ends on Sunday, Nov. 6. At 2 a.m., our clocks will fall back an hour and we will all gain an hour of sleep, but also lose sunlight in our days.

According to a blog from NASA, “Earth’s axis is tilted with respect to the Sun-Earth plane. But on these special days – the spring and fall equinoxes – the Sun shines almost equally on the Northern and Southern hemispheres.”

How much sunlight do we lose in October?

In October we lose about one to three minutes per day due to earth’s tilt away from the sun, said meteorologist Katrina Hand from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This causes the sunrise to happen later in the day and the sun to set a little earlier. The gradual loss of sunlight throughout the month makes Halloween the darkest day of the month in more ways than one. From Oct. 1 to the 31st, we lose a total of about 80 to 90 minutes of sunlight.

When is the darkest day of the year?

After the autumnal equinox we continue to lose daylight everyday, making the winter solstice the darkest and shortest day of the year.

According to Earth Sky, during the winter solstice, Earth is positioned in a way that the sun stays below the North Pole’s horizon causing all locations north of the equator to have days shorter than 12 hours.

During this time our sunlight typically wont exceed anything longer than 12 hours.

The winter solstice can sometimes shift due to leap year, and either lands on the Dec. 21 or 22. This year it will land on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

This story was originally published October 20, 2022 at 8:00 AM with the headline "California is slipping into a chilly, darker season. Here’s how much daylight we lose each day."