How much daylight Columbus will gain in January, and how it ranks among other cities
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — With the arrival of the new year and the 2024 winter solstice in the past, the people of central Ohio can now look forward to more daylight hours.
The Columbus region will gain about 45 minutes of daylight in January, with earlier sunrises and later sunsets. According to timeanddate.com, the sunrise will shift from 7:53 a.m. on Jan. 1 to 7:40 a.m. on Jan. 31. Additionally, the sunset will begin several minutes later from 5:17 p.m. on Jan. 1 to 5:50 p.m. on Jan. 31.
This season's solstice, or the “shortest” day of winter with the fewest daylight hours, arrived on Dec. 21 and provided Columbus with about 9 hours and 20 minutes of sunlight. On Jan. 31, the day will last around 10 hours and 9 minutes.
While days will continue to get “longer” until the summer solstice on June 20, when daylight hours will start to diminish, there will be a brief interruption when daylight saving time begins on March 9. The time change will shift the sunrise from 6:54 a.m. on March 8, to 7:52 a.m. the next morning.
It is also possible that March will be the last time daylight saving time will be observed. In December, President-elect Donald Trump said he would push to eliminate the “inconvenient” and “costly” practice of daylight saving time. However, most recent federal attempts to modify the time change have pushed for daylight saving time to become permanent.
Last July in Ohio, a bipartisan bill to observe daylight saving time permanently took another step forward at the Statehouse after passing the House the previous year.
Around the country, 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 fewer 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.
The chart below shows how Ohio stacks up to other cities in the U.S. when it comes to gaining daylight this January.