Here's when days will start getting longer in Illinois

Thursday marks the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning it is the day where the Earth’s axis is tilted the farthest away from the sun and the day with the fewest minutes of daylight of the year.

Indeed, the city of Chicago will see approximately nine hours, seven minutes and 44 seconds of daylight on Thursday, according to Time and Date.

While most residents know that days will start to get longer after the solstice, the reality is that it will take some time before the additional daylight will become noticeable.

That’s because the area will gain an entire second of daylight on Friday, then four more seconds on Saturday. In fact, by the end of the year, the city will have gained just three minutes of daylight from the winter solstice.

As January moves along however, the area will gain daylight in bigger chunks. On Jan. 6, the city will gain more than a minute of daylight for the first time, and by month’s end, we’ll be racking up two or more additional minutes of daylight with each passing day.

On Jan. 28, the city will see its first sunset after 5 p.m. since early November, and on Feb. 1, the city will eclipse 10 hours of daylight for the first time since Nov. 10.

Of course, there will be larger gains to come, with the summer solstice marking more than 15 hours and 13 minutes of daylight in mid-June.

from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/wJUe8sM