Eastern Iowa to gain 71 minutes of daylight this month

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Every year, once we hit the Winter Solstice in December, we start gaining daylight again.

This week all of our big four cities, including Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Waterloo, and Dubuque will now have sunsets past 5:00 p.m. This has not happened since October of last year right before the time changed.

Our sunset in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday is at 5:05 p.m. and we’ve already gained 28 minutes of daylight since the Winter Solstice. Throughout the month of January. eastern Iowa will gain around 71 minutes and another 70 minutes through the month of February. In March, we will gain around 84 minutes of daylight.

Right now, we have around nine and half hours of daylight. By the time we reach Valentine’s Day, we will have gained another hour of daylight, for around ten and half hours of daylight. The first official day of spring on March 20th will have around 12 hours of daylight. By the time we reach the Summer Solstice, which is the longest day of the year, we will have around fifteen hours of daylight.

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