Days will get longer in January: Which cities will gain the most daylight?
(NEXSTAR) — The dark days of winter have been upon us for weeks now but that trend will soon be coming to an end, especially in some parts of the country that will gain an hour of daylight in January.
We have already surpassed the "shortest" day of winter — the day in which we see the fewest daylight hours — in late December. Some places in the U.S. had just six hours of sunlight that day.
Thankfully, the days have slowly been getting longer ever since. That trend will only ramp up through January.
Those in Alaska will see the biggest increase in daylight hours this month. On Jan. 1 in Anchorage, the sun rose at 10:14 a.m. and set around 3:53 p.m. local time, giving the city less than six hours of daylight. By the end of the month, the sun will rise at 9:23 a.m. and set after 5 p.m., NOAA’s Solar Calculator shows, giving Anchorage seven hours and 41 minutes of daylight.
Areas closest to the Canadian border, like Seattle and Minnesota's northern tip, will gain about an hour of daylight through January. But, as you move further south in the Lower 48, the increase will not be nearly as drastic.
In Key West, Florida, residents started 2025 with 10 hours and 40 minutes of daylight. When January ends, they'll have about 11 hours and 3 minutes of daylight: a gain of only 23 minutes. Similarly, Honolulu will only gain about 20 minutes.
The table below shows how much daylight — or how little daylight — cities across the U.S. will gain through January:
Don't see your city on the list? You can use NOAA's Solar Calculator, found here, to compare your sunrise and sunset times.
While our days will continue to get "longer" until the summer solstice on June 20 (we start to slowly lose daylight afterward), there will be a brief interruption when daylight saving time begins in March. Initially, this means we will perceive the sun as rising earlier — but it will quickly shift earlier as the days get longer.
It's also possible that March is the last time we observe daylight saving time. In December, President-elect Donald Trump said he would push to eliminate the “inconvenient” and “costly” practice of daylight saving time (something the U.S. has tried before with little success).
It's too soon to tell whether this will happen or whether permanent daylight saving or permanent standard time would be observed, but most recent federal attempts have pushed for the former.