Bright side: Minnesota gains 3 minutes of daylight per day soon
We've gained over an hour of daylight since the winter solstice
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Have you noticed it?
Yes, it’s cold again.
But Minnesota is gaining daylight more rapidly now as we move into February. We’re already gained 1 hour and 6 minutes of daylight since the winter solstice in late December. We’re now gaining 2:34 per day.
Here are some optimistic daylight milestones as we move into February. The times shown are for the Twin Cities area.
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Feb. 2: We gain 2 minutes 36 seconds of daylight.
Feb. 2: Sunset time is 5:22 p.m.
Feb. 20: We gain 3 minutes of daylight per day!
Feb. 23: Sunrise time is 7:00 a.m.
Feb. 28: Sunset time is 5:59 p.m.!
Overall we will gain a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes of daylight in February. And the higher sun angle in the second half of February means we’re melting snow faster on days near the thawing mark.
So while winter usually hangs on into the first week of February in Minnesota, it won’t be long before you’ll be feeling our more powerful sun angle and intensity melting ice and snow on milder days this month.
Did I mention we’re likely to hit the 30s again next week?
Drip, drip.
Hang in there, Minnesota.