*** Paul Piorek is editor and publisher of Paul's Local Weather Journal for southwestern Connecticut ... Paul is the on-air meteorologist at WICC 600 AM and 107.3 FM ... Paul is a New York Emmy award winner (2007), five-time Emmy nominee, and four-time winner of the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcasters' Association award for Best TV Weathercast (2006, 2008, 2009, 2012) ... Paul was voted Best Local Television Personality by the readers of Fairfield County Weekly Magazine (2012) ... Paul was inducted into the Housatonic Community College Hall of Fame and received the Distinguished Alumni Award (2012) ... The local weather journal is a two-time winner of the Communicator Award of Distinction (2012 & 2013) ... Paul is currently a full-time teacher of Earth Science and Mathematics in Fairfield ... Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulPiorekWICC ...

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Dwindling Daylight Marks Summer's Final Month

This Friday marks eight weeks since the Summer Solstice, and the Autumnal Equinox is just a little more than one month away. Summer officially began on Friday, June 21, while Fall starts in the Northern Hemisphere on Sunday, September 22 at 4:44 p.m. EDT. Where has the time gone?

Sun_drawingI'm sure you’ve noticed by now that our days are getting shorter. In fact, today's sunrise at 6:01 EDT marks the first time since April 23 that the Sun rises after 6 o'clock. This evening's sunset is at 7:53 p.m. The times of sunrise and sunset on the first day of Summer were at 5:19 a.m. & 8:30 p.m., respectively. That means we’ve lost one hour and 19 minutes of daylight over the last eight weeks. And, daylight will continue to dwindle.

By the end of August, the sun rises at 6:18 and sets at 7:27, meaning that over an hour of daylight will have been lost in the evening alone since the first day of Summer. Just over one month from now, on the Autumnal Equinox, the sunrise is at 6:38 a.m. and sunset is at 6:53 p.m. The loss of daylight accelerates through the three months of Autumn.

A very nice stretch of weather is ahead through the start of the weekend. A cold front cleared the region last night after delivering less than a quarter-inch of rain (0.19") at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford yesterday. The monthly total (0.84") is still nearly an inch below normal (1.72") through yesterday. The average temperature this month is 72.8 degrees, which is 1.5 degrees below normal.

Enjoy the next couple of days and the last month of Summer!

Paul