Oh how we’ve missed the days of later sunsets! Winter in the city can get pretty gloomy with the cold temperatures and early sunsets. It’s hard to tell the difference between 4pm and 8pm some days!
Luckily, this week (specifically Sunday, March 31), the latest sunset in Manchester since the autumn will occur after 7pm (and the for the first time this year) – yes, right around tea time. Thanks to steadily lengthening days and Daylight Saving Time beginning on Sunday, March 31 (taking place at 1am on Sunday if you want to be precise about it), your evenings can last longer once again! This is then followed by 8pm sunsets later on in April (from April 10) thanks to the clocks going forward.
And, the sun won’t set before 5pm again for the next eight months (October 27th, to be exact). So we can say goodbye to that winter darkness… Since the clocks went back in October, we’ve been averaging at around 10.5 hours of daylight total so it’ll be more than invigorating to watch that number increase.
Fun Fact: The earliest sunset of 2023 actually happened only in mid-December at 3.49pm… so we’ve been steadily increasing since then. And the earliest sunset of 2024 is likely to happen at the same time as last year and will occur a week before the winter solstice (December 21st, 2024).
Of course, there’s still a chill in the air, even with a few days where the temperature is in double figures but that sweet first 7pm sunset in Manchester for 2024 has got us feeling as though summer is on the horizon. Better still, it will take place during the long Easter bank holiday weekend for Mancs to fully enjoy the brighter, longer days.