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Days will get longer in January: Which cities will gain the most daylight?

(NEXSTAR) — The dark days of winter have been going on for the past few weeks, but that trend will soon be ending, especially in some parts of the country that get an extra hour of daylight in January.

Already in late December, we have surpassed the “shortest” days of winter, that is, the days with the least amount of sunlight. In some parts of the United States, there were only 6 hours of sunshine that day.

Thankfully, the days have gotten a little longer since then. This trend is likely to accelerate further into January.

Alaskans will experience the largest increase in daylight hours this month. On January 1, the sun rose in Anchorage at 10:14 a.m. local time and set at around 3:53 p.m., leaving the city with less than six hours of sunshine. By the end of this month, the sun will rise at 9:23 a.m. and set after 5 p.m., giving Anchorage 7 hours and 41 minutes of sunshine, according to NOAA's Solar Calculator.

Areas closest to the Canadian border, such as Seattle and the northern tip of Minnesota, are expected to gain about an hour of sunshine throughout January. However, as you move further south on Route 48 South, the increase is less steep.

In Key West, Florida, residents started 2025 with 10 hours and 40 minutes of sunshine. By the end of January, there will be approximately 11 hours and 3 minutes of daylight. That's an increase of just 23 minutes. Similarly, Honolulu will only save about 20 minutes.

The table below shows how much more or less sunshine cities across the United States will get by January.

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Don't see your city listed? You can use NOAA's Solar Calculator. found herecompare the times of sunrise and sunset.

Days are “longer” until the summer solstice on June 20th (after which daylight hours gradually begin to decrease), but there is a brief hiatus when daylight saving time begins in March. This means that the sun will initially seem to rise earlier, but it will quickly become earlier as the days get longer.

It's also possible that March will be the last time we observe daylight saving time. In December, President-elect Donald Trump said he would push to end the “inconvenient” and “expensive” practice of daylight saving time, which the United States had previously tried with little success.

It is too early to tell whether this will happen or whether permanent daylight saving time and permanent standard time will be observed, but most recent federal efforts are pushing for the former.

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