How much daylight have we lost this October?

We lose anywhere from 40 minutes to upwards of 90 minutes of daylight in October as the days quickly become shorter and the nights grow longer.

You might have noticed that the days are getting shorter in October, which could be disappointing for some.

The daylight quickly grows shorter as October progresses, with the fastest decrease at the beginning of the month. 

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For most of the country, we lose a minute or two of daylight at both sunrise and sunset. This means that between Oct. 1 and Halloween, there is an additional 60 to 70 minutes of darkness. In northern cities such as Seattle and Minneapolis, some 90 minutes of daylight are lost between the first and last day of the month, while it's "only" 40 minutes of daylight loss along the Gulf Coast.

For some, the last 7 p.m. sunset of the year occurs in October, ushering in 5 months in which the sun goes down before 7 p.m. 

In parts of the southern U.S., the earliest sunset occurs more than a month before the latest winter sunrise. It takes until early to mid-January to start slowly gaining morning daylight.

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It’s all about Earth's axial tilt. The speed at which you lose daylight hours depends on your latitude. The higher your latitude, the faster you lose daylight. 

Some cities across the U.S. already had their last 7 p.m. sunset of the year. 

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Many cities in the U.S. won't have a sunset past 7 p.m. again until March 2024, when the clocks spring forward one hour with the return of Daylight Saving Time.

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