Check Out How Much Daylight Minnesota is Gaining Right Now

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Now that daily saving time is in effect in Minnesota, it's already lighter later in the evening. But we're also gaining a lot of extra daylight this week, as well.

Living here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, we know we can't always count on March being warm and spring-like, as it was during the record-setting March of 2012 (check out how warm it was below!) And course, there can also be late-season snowstorms that hit our neck of the woods during March.

But we CAN count on the amount of daylight we get to increase during March each year. And specifically, this week. According to Paul Huttner, chief meteorologist at MPR, the North Star State is gaining 3 minutes and 9 seconds of daylight per day this week., which he says is the fastest daylight gain of the year.

Thanks to our having sprung ahead an hour when daylight saving time started last Sunday, sunsets are occurring much later here in southeast Minnesota. Date-and-Time says sunset on March 17th in Rochester occurs at 7:18 pm, and will continue to get later and later as we approach the Vernal Equinox on March 21st (when our sunsets will occur at 7:23 pm.)

We'll continue to have sunsets after 7 pm here in southeast Minnesota, Date-and-Time says, from now through September 26th, with our latest sunset time occurring at 8:56 pm on July 3rd. After that, sunsets start to happen earlier each night until December 13th, when the sunsets at its earliest time of 4:31 pm before gradually starting to increase again.

Of course, those times still reflect our using daylight saving time. There is a proposal moving through Congress that would make daylight saving time permanent in the spring of 2023. You can check out how that would affect our sunrise and sunset times HERE.

And while most of us look forward to more sunlight and spring, there are a few things about the spring season some Minnesotans DON'T like. Keep scrolling to see what they are.

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