First Alert Weather In-Depth: Sunshine usually means happier Rochesterians

I have a theory that Rochesterians appreciate the nice weather just a little bit more than some other communities. This is not based on any specific empirical data, but rather my anecdotal information collected over the years. I get the sense that for some people, Rochester can be a challenge because of the long dreary winter season.

We can talk about the reasons as to why it is more “uplifting” for this time of the year. One example is the warming temperature. But in my opinion, a more likely reason is the amount of potential sunshine we receive in Western New York. Officially, this past Sunday our sunset time reached the eight o’clock hour. You may have not noticed this subtle difference, but it tends to be a bit of a monumental event for meteorologists.

Over the next couple of weeks the sunset gets later and later. And by May 13, our sunset advances to 8:25 p.m. Naturally, the days get longer as the amount of daylight increases. So how long does this trend last? Well, if you include Sunday and you continue it through a good portion of the summer season, the sunsets lasting into the eight o’clock time frame will continue until Aug. 22.  It is nearly four months of beautiful sunsets.

Obviously, we can thank the adjustment to daylight saving time. But this is also due to basic astronomy. You can see this trend when we trace that data back to Dec. 1. This is the first day of winter, commonly called the winter solstice. On that day, we only had 8 hours and 59 minutes of daylight and the sun angle was a paltry 23 degrees above the horizon. As of Monday, the sun angle has gone up to almost 60 degrees. We now enjoy a total of 13 hours and 45 minutes of potential daylight. Once we reach the first day of summer, June 21, the sun angle is at an amazing 70 degrees with a whopping 15 hours and 22 minutes of daylight.

To be sure, much of this comes down to the amount of cloud cover we see on any given day, but for some folks, it is a happy time in Rochester. I hope you enjoy it.