Ben Lowry: ​And now we are in the very darkest evenings in Northern Ireland

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In writing that I am not referring to the winter solstice, less than a fortnight away. I mean that Monday will be one of the shortest afternoons.

For reasons astronomers would understand, but I don’t, the earliest sunsets of the year are this coming week, pre solstice. The latest sunrise is at the end of December.

From Monday until Saturday, the sun in Belfast will set at 3.57pm, before on Sunday the sun will then edge to a later setting time of 3.58pm. This is why daylight watchers such as me notice the brighter evenings as soon as early January, because by then the sunset time has been getting later for almost a month.

But on Monday the sun will rise at 8.35am, and will continue to appear at a later and later time each day until December 26, when dawn is at 8.46am, as it is for each of the last five days of December.

Thus, while December 22 this year will be the shortest day of the year in terms of absolute daylight – the amount of time between sunrise and sunset – the darkest evenings are now. Non early birds like me are notice sunset more than sunrise.

The weather forecast for today, tomorrow and early next week in Belfast is grey, dark and damp. A fitting metaphor for this exact moment in the season, after which I look forward both to seasonal cheer and increasing evening light!

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter editor