STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The long winters nights are finally facing an awaited annual adversary: the sun.
The first glimpse of extended daylight hours in New York City is on its way as we roll into late January — Wednesday will feature the city’s first sunset after 5 p.m. of 2026.
Yes, that’s right: Spring, though seemingly far away, is coming sooner than we think. When March rolls around and daylight saving time pushes our clocks ahead, sunsets will arrive at 7 p.m. once again.
But if you’ve noticed that the sun seems to be lasting a bit longer before dipping down below in recently weeks, you’d be correct.
The winter solstice, the longest night of year, was Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. After the solstice, the sun begins to incrementally shift out of seasonal depression mode as the night retreats and daylight prevails.
The opposite happens during the summer solstice. Marked as the longest day of the year, the nights incrementally become longer after it passes.
In 2026, the solstice lands on Sunday, June 21.
The big jump to 7 p.m. sunsets comes Sunday, March 8, this year, as the clocks push us ahead an hour.
Then, once we reach Nov. 1, the clocks roll back and we lose that precious hour of daylight in favor of the winter nights once again.
There’s typically an annual push in the United States to end the practice of daylight saving, which began in 1966 due to the Uniform Time Act, signed by President Lyndon Johnson.