It happened during KOIN Local 6 at 6pm this week. Jeff Gianola said to me across the studio,  “Bruce, look at that! It’s 6:05 and all our live reports still show daylight.”
Kelley Day then says to both us, “I love this time of year, when the days are getting longer!”
Nooo doubt.
That’s when I decided to dig into how much daylight we are adding around the Portland area. Turns out it’s about 3 minutes a day. Or 21 minutes a week. And nearly 90 minutes in the next month. Now that’s a trend I can live with!
Northwest Cities Hit Sunset Milestone This Week
Honestly, is it too much to ask for a 6:00pm sunset in Portland, Seattle or Bend? Yes, yes it is, most of the winter. Until this week.
 Here are the dates the following Northwest Cities experience their first 6 o’clock sunset of the year.
- Astoria, Oregon – Monday February 28
- Corvallis, Oregon – Tuesday March 1
- Salem, Oregon – Wednesday March 2
- Portland, Oregon – Thursday March 3
- Vancouver, Washington – Thursday March 3
- Â Seattle, Washington – Saturday March 5
- Bend, Oregon – Sunday March 6
- Hood River, Oregon – Sunday March 6
The exact day of the first 6:00pm sunset will shift a day one way or another every couple of years. But that’s fine with me, as long as they show up!
You can look up your city’s sunrise and sunset times for the entire year at the web site of the National Weather Service in Portland, Oregon. In the meantime, there’s a chance your sanity is saved (restored?) thanks to more light in our northwest skies.
Now if we could just clear out the clouds around here…
This is so exciting, every year! intriguing to see how much longer it is here in the Gorge before we get what you have there… and this time of year the sun sets pretty much right in the Gorge which is fun to see…
Once we moved past the cross quarter day around Ground Hogs day, the sunset seems to come later more quickly… until we reach SPring equinox when days and nights are equal, then the acceleration towards long days increases until summer solstice when days are longest of the year…
my goodness that time all goes so fast!
here are a couple interesting links I just came across… this is a wikipedia link of the year 2011 events, holidays, and astonomical events that looks interesting..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011
intriguing info of all sorts on Seasons both astronomically and traditionally here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season
Thanks, Darlisa, for the thoughtful comment. Interesting link on astronomical events this year!