Since Hawaii is located closer to the equator as compared to the rest of North America, the amount of daylight time as well as the sunrise and sunset times don’t vary as much. Generally speaking the further north (or south) you go from the equator, you experience wider variation of sunrise and sunset times through the seasons. To illustrate this point, I’ll compare the longest and shortest days of the year for Honolulu, Hawaii to Chicago, Illinois.
| City | June 21 Sunrise | June 21 Sunset | June 21 Daylight Hrs | Dec 21 Sunrise | Dec 21 Sunset | Dec 21 Daylight Hrs |
| Honolulu | 5:50 am | 7:16 pm | 13 hr 26 min | 7:05 am | 5:55 pm | 10 hr 50 min |
| Chicago | 5:16 am | 8:29 pm | 15 hr 13 min | 7:15 am | 4:23 pm | 9 hr 7 min |
Notice that in Chicago, there’s more than a six hour variation of daylight hours from the longest to the shortest day of the year. For Honolulu, there’s less than a three hour difference from the longest to the shortest day of the year.
I should also mention that Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight savings time, but Chicago does. So, when trying to make apples-to-apples comparison of sunrise and sunset times, add an hour to the June times.
What other interesting observations have you noticed about this fact?
Data source: TimeandDate.com
Sheila Beal
5 comments
Not having been to the islands during December, I guess I’m surprised that the sun actually sets before 6pm there (even if only for a week).
Living in Chicago, I can certainly say those days where the sun sets before 4:30pm are no fun, although it’s usually cloudy and snowing anyway. 🙂
@ Kris – I lived in London for almost a year. Gosh, the winter was depressing. I don’t remember how early the sun set, but it started getting dark before 4pm. On the flip side, in the summer, the sun would start to light up the sky at about 4am and get dark at about 10pm.
My observation is that I’d rather be in Hawaii than Chicago! 😛
i think because i been in texas for agout 10 years i think hawii has 50% of sun!!!!!!!!!!!
Being born and raised on O’ahu, I can say without a doubt that Hawai’i is about the best place to live. It’s 02.11.2012 at 2231 HST and it’s 74 degrees outside, with tomorrow hitting 80 degrees. I lived in LA, Oakland, and Fresno and I can say that it was weird to me when it was still lit at 2100 since it get dark a little after 1900 during the summer.