Jillian Raftery formerly worked on the newsdesk at KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM as an editor.
A view of the Space Needle and Olympic Mountains at sunset in February. In November, the light is fading fast. By the time daylight saving time ends and clocks jump back an hour, dark times will have arrived.
Before we know it, the sun is setting by 4:30 p.m.“The Earth rotates around the sun in an elliptical orbit. And in doing so, the Earth has a 23.5-degree tilt. During our winter season, we are actually a little closer to the sun than we are during the summer,” KIRO Newsradio Meteorologist Ted Buehner explained. “But it also means our daylight hours are shorter. In fact, right around the winter solstice, we’re down to about eight hours and 20 minutes of daylight. In contrast, when we have our summer solstice, we’re right around 16 hours of daylight. So, about double what we get this time of year.” November is also usually the rainiest month of the year, followed closely by December and January, setting northwest residents up for gloomy darkness even during the day as clouds bear down on the region and wipe out nearly any trace of the sun.Sunday, Jan. 25, will mark the first 5 p.m. sunset of the year. And it will get later every day. “In the winter season, right around the winter solstice, we’re only gaining a few seconds. Now, here we are in the latter part of January, we’re gaining about a minute a day at this point. And that is going to accelerate to about three-and-a-half minutes when we get to March. So we’re making that momentum, gaining daylight on both the sunrise and the sunset,” Buehner said.“So as a result, we’re starting to get more daylight on both ends of the day until summer solstice in the third week of June,” Buehner said. Because of the springtime change, sunrises will shift back to 7:30 a.m. in March, but we’ll also get later sunsets. And by then, the days will be gaining more and more daylight.You survived ‘The Big Dark’: 5 pm sunsets are right around the cornerJanuary dry spell continues as Pacific Northwest snowpack falls behindThe night sky could put on a show Monday night as the Northern Lights may be visible in the greater Seattle area.Sunshine has flooded most of western Washington last weekend, and is expected to continue through the rest of the week.Get the latest weather forecast for the Seahawks' playoff game against the 49ers at Lumen Field this Saturday at 5 p.m.Chrystal Ortega's tireless dedication recently earned her the WSECU Community Champions Award and a $1,000 grant to further the mission.When Shawn Tibbitts opened Tibbitts FernHill, he was just trying to survive. The small Tacoma restaurant has since earned culinary awards and praise.Wilcox Family Farms is continuing its cherished holiday tradition of giving back by donating nearly one million eggs to food banks across the South Sound region this season.Matthew Ballantyne has transformed that early awareness into action, embodying the organization's mission:"No Kid Sleeps On The Floor In Our Town."Discover Kitsap County’s creative soul: Where Nordic charm meets gothic gardens and ancient traditions thrive Kitsap County is full of wonderfully weird, authentically artsy, and unexpectedly magical corners that make visitors become locals and locals never want to leave.
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