Ben Lowry: The darkest evenings of the year in Northern Ireland are already upon us and this week will begin to lengthen

The evenings in Northern Ireland are now the darkest of the year.

(Click here to read Ben Lowry’s main column about unionists uniting against the Irish Sea border)

placeholder image — The Giant's Causeway at sunset. The sun is now setting at the earliest it does all year, a week before the winter solstice. The solstice is the shortest day but the earliest sunset is before it, while the latest sunrises are after it. Photo: Alamy/PA

The winter solstice is not until next Saturday, December 21. It is the shortest day of the year, with the smallest amount of sunlight. But there is a curious astronomical quirk in how we get to that shortest day. The earliest sunsets are in fact prior to the solstice, and the latest sunrises are actually after it.

The sun will set in Belfast today at 3.57pm, the earliest it does all year. This has been the case each day since Wednesday, and will remain so each day until Tuesday. On Wednesday coming, the sunset will edge later to 3.58pm. It will get later and later for months until the days around the summer solstice in June.

The mornings are different. They will not turn until the end of the month. This morning the sun rose in Belfast at 8.39am and tomorrow it will be 8.40am. Dawn will happen at a slightly later time each day until Boxing Day, when it will be the latest sunrise of the year at 8.46am.

The sun will emerge at that same time each day until into the new year, when on January 2 it will happen slightly earlier at 8.45am. By then the sunset will have already pushed out to 4.10pm, an extra 13 minutes of evening daylight.

This all suits me rather well. I do not like the short days but I am a late riser, so I notice – and take pleasure from – the brighter evenings more than I notice the brighter mornings.

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry) is News Letter editor