The darkest evenings of the year are just days away

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- We're working our way through the first few weeks of Standard Time and we're already almost at the earliest sunsets of the year!

The earliest the sun sets in Austin in any given year is at 5:30 p.m. We will begin to see the sun setting at that time beginning this coming Sunday.

These early sunsets will continue at 5:30 p.m. through the first and into the second week of Dec., marking the darkest evenings of the year.

As we head through Dec. the sun will gradually set later so that by Jan. our sunsets will be at 6 p.m. again with March bringing the return of 7 p.m. or later sunsets as we mark the return of Daylight Saving Time.

Eventually our sunsets reach their latest of the year from late June through early July at 8:36 p.m.

Sunrises keep getting later

Even as our sunsets start getting later, our sunrises will get later at a faster rate through Dec. and into Jan.

Our latest sunrise of Standard Time doesn't occur until Jan. 4-15 when our sunrise will be at 7:28 a.m. This isn't our latest sunrise of the year, but our latest sunrise of Standard Time.

The final days of Daylight Saving Time in early November bring our latest sunrises of the year closer to 7:46 a.m.

A month away from our shortest day

All this works out to mean that we keep losing daylight until the first day of winter on Dec. 21, which marks our shortest day and longest night of the year.

We'll get just 10 hours and 11 minutes of daylight on the first day of winter, but then slowly we'll get more daylight as we head through winter and spring.

Our longest day of the year is the first day of summer with 14 hours and 6 minutes of daylight.