Why Are Sunsets Getting Later Before The Winter Solstice?

Published December 11, 2018 at 12:33 PM CST

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Mount Baker is seen some 85 miles distant behind the Space Needle under clear skies at sunset Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018, from Seattle. (Elaine Thompson/AP)

The earliest sunset of the year has already happened, even though the shortest day of the year isn’t until Dec. 21. In Texas, the earliest sunset was last week. In parts of Alabama, it was late last month. In New England, it was in the last few days.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks with Gaboury Benoit, professor of environmental chemistry at Yale University and director of the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology, about why.