los angeles ca 1/16/07 Why have we gained 24 minutes of sunlight in the PM and no gain of sunlight in the AM?

Answer 1

This is difficult to explain without visual aids, but I'll try. It has to do in part with the Earth being close to perihelion now, and therefore moving faster in its orbit around the Sun. This means the Earth has to rotate a little further than usual from one local noon to the next. Couple that with the fact that as we move away from the winter solstice here in the northern hemisphere, our axial tilt, which was directly away from the sun, is now a little towards the west. So the hours of daylight are increasing, and we get the extra sun in the afternoon, because that's the direction the tilt is going towards.

Answer 2

by way of fact the circumstances of modern-day daybreak and earliest sundown are offset from the date of the equinox. in the northern hemisphere, the earliest sunsets ensue approximately 2 weeks before the equinox, while the latest sunrises ensue approximately 2 weeks after. The equinox remains the day with shortest entire quantity of light. Ergo, one genuinely notices in early January that sunsets are already getting later whilst sunrises seem to not be getting before (by way of fact they are not yet).

Answer 3

It's the equation of time, don't worry about it.

*24* minutes? Are you sure it's not 16 or less?