A stiff wind roared in yesterday, accompanied by low-flying Dulles-bound jets over the house. It was unsettling enough to make me check the weather on my phone, and when I did, I noted the time of sunset: 4:47. I looked at the time on my computer: also 4:47.

With 4:47 on my mind, I did a bit of googling. It’s an early sunset, to be sure, though not as early as the 4:18 sunset in Seattle. If it’s this early now, though, what will it be next week or the week after?

Turns out, it will be later, steadily later every evening, back to 4:57 by the end of the month. In fact, 4:47 seems to be the earliest sunset we will have this year. It’s all up from here. The total minutes of daylight will continue to shrink as we approach solstice, but only because sunrises will be later.

I don’t know why this made me feel so much better, but it did.