Daylight by Month Table
| Month (15th) | 25°N | 35°N | 45°N | 55°N |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 10:44 | 10:02 | 9:08 | 7:45 |
| February | 11:18 | 10:54 | 10:24 | 9:39 |
| March | 11:58 | 11:54 | 11:50 | 11:44 |
| April | 12:43 | 13:02 | 13:27 | 14:03 |
| May | 13:20 | 13:58 | 14:49 | 16:05 |
| June | 13:41 | 14:30 | 15:35 | 17:20 |
| July | 13:33 | 14:18 | 15:18 | 16:52 |
| August | 13:02 | 13:31 | 14:08 | 15:04 |
| September | 12:20 | 12:27 | 12:36 | 12:50 |
| October | 11:37 | 11:22 | 11:03 | 10:37 |
| November | 10:57 | 10:22 | 9:36 | 8:28 |
| December | 10:36 | 9:49 | 8:48 | 7:14 |
Ask how much daylight winter brings and the honest answer is: which latitude? The same December 15 hands Miami ten and a half hours, Denver nine-forty, Minneapolis eight-forty-eight and Copenhagen seven-fourteen. The table runs four representative latitudes across all twelve months, computed from the NOAA solar position formulas and checked against published almanac values.
Bottom line: latitude is a leverage on season. The June spread across the table is almost four hours (13:41 to 17:20); December's is the same in reverse - and the swing at 55°N is ten hours a day between solstices, versus three at 25°N. Every row pinches to the same 12 hours at the equinoxes, the two points where latitude stops mattering.
The honest part: the numbers are astronomical daylight - sun above the horizon - which is why June 15 can read 17:20 somewhere and still feel short once clouds and twilight habits weigh in. Civil twilight adds usable light at both ends (more at high latitudes), and the one-hour DST shuffle moves clocks, not the sun: the table is the daylight that exists, not the schedule you keep.
How to use
- Find the latitude nearest you - 25°N is South Florida, 35°N the Deep South and LA, 45°N Minneapolis and Portland, 55°N Copenhagen and Edinburgh.
- Read your column down for the year's shape: the equinox pinch at 12 hours, the June peak, the December trough.
- Compare columns to see the latitude tax - the same month hands different latitudes daylight hours apart, which is the whole winter-light story.
Frequently asked questions
Which month has the least daylight?
December - the December solstice (around the 21st) is the year's shortest day everywhere in the northern hemisphere, and the table's December column sits at every latitude's minimum. The coldest months lag behind, though: early January is nearly as dark but keeps getting colder, because the ground and atmosphere hold summer's heat for weeks after the light turns.
Why do equinoxes show exactly 12 hours everywhere?
At the equinoxes the sun sits on the celestial equator, so day and night split evenly at every latitude - the geometry is symmetric and the table's rows all pinch to about 12 hours (a few minutes over, because sunrise and sunset are defined when the sun's top edge clears the horizon through atmospheric refraction). It is the one month where latitude has almost nothing to say.
How much daylight does the far north lose in winter?
The table stops at 55°N (Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Moscow's latitude), where the swing runs 7:14 to 17:20 - ten hours. North of there the curve steepens: 60°N (Oslo, Helsinki) dips under six hours in December, and inside the Arctic Circle the sun sets for the season entirely. The same leverage plays in reverse at midsummer, which is why midnight-sun festivals and winter-darkness clinics describe the same latitude.
Does daylight saving time change the daylight hours in this table?
No - DST moves the clock, not the sun. The table measures sun-above-horizon time, which depends only on latitude and season; the March and November shifts just relabel which wall-clock hours the daylight lands in. That relabeling is real policy (an evening hour in summer, a morning hour in winter), which is why the fall-back planner and this table answer different questions.
How accurate are these daylight numbers?
They come from the standard NOAA solar position formulas with the conventional sunrise definition (sun's upper edge 0.833° above the horizon, refraction included), computed for the 15th of each month. Cross-checked against published values - New York's December solstice computes to 9h15m against an almanac 9h20m, Miami 10h32m, London 7h50m - so expect agreement within a few minutes, and treat mountain horizons as local exceptions.