The Daily Parker

This is one of my favorite milestones. Thanks to the analemma, tonight's sunset (4:20 pm) is the earliest of the year in Chicago. Of course, the sunrise still gets later every day until January 4th. At least tomorrow we'll have just a smidge more evening light than we'll have today.

I can't remember the last time Chicago got all the way through October without a freezing day. This year, even by November 2nd, we still haven't officially had a freeze.

Also, tomorrow has Chicago's latest sunrise: 7:25 am. For those 33 years old and under, it's the latest sunrise ever. (During the 1973 energy crisis, Chicago didn't return to Standard Time in the fall.)

Delayed edit, 11:05pm: Moments after posting this, O'Hare recorded its first freezing temperature since April 16th.

It's time for the semi-annual update of the Evanston/Chicago sunrise chart. (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx.)

You can get sunrise information for your location at wx-now.com.

• Tonight's sunset in Chicago (8:31 pm) is the latest of the year.
• The United Nations reported this week that, for the first time, more than half of all people live in cities.

The June Solstice happens in 15 minutes, at 1:06pm CDT. Happy Summer! (Or, you know, winter, for the one-third of the world who live in the Southern Hemisphere.)

The clouds broke this evening just long enough for me to see the eclipse. As they say in Boston: wicked cool.

The eclipse will be total from 4:44 pm CT to 5:58 pm, so when the moon rises over Chicago at 5:39 pm it will appear a deep red. (If it appears at all, of course; the weather will likely be cloudy.)

Observers on the East Coast will have a better view; Europeans will get to see the whole thing.

It's time to update the sunrise chart. (You can get one for your own location at http://www.wx-now.com/Sunrise/SunriseChart.aspx.)

Notice that in 2007, Daylight Saving Time lasts a lot longer than in years past: from the second Sunday in March through the first Sunday in November. This actually makes the autumn a little darker, as you can see from the chart.

You can get sunrise information for your location at wx-now.com.

The Winter Solstice happens today at 6:22 pm CST (00:22 UTC).

I also forgot to mention, because it happened while my office DSL was down (cutting off my Web servers from the world), that this past Friday had the earliest sunset of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Ordinarilly at a juncture like this I would write a dissertation on why the earliest sunset precedes the latest sunrise by four weeks, or why neither coincides with the solstice, but I'll spare you for now. No, the sun is setting later now, but the sun is also rising later, until January 4th, sorry to say.