CLEARWATER, Fla. — The weekend is almost here and that means that the clocks will change back an hour on Sunday. That means a major shift in our sunrise and sunset times across the Tampa Bay area as daylight saving time ends.
Currently, our sun rises around 7:45 a.m. — after the change it will be closer to 6:45 a.m. That same change will happen to our sunsets. The sun currently sets around 6:45 p.m. but that will now move all the way up to 5:45 p.m.
That is a rough time estimate, but each city will see a slightly different time that the sun actually rises and sets. That all has to do with the location of each area including how far north or south and east or west a city is.
For example, with Lakeland being further inland, the sunset will be at 5:40 p.m. — a few minutes earlier than Tampa because the sun sets in the west.
Along with the time change comes another important milestone: The total amount of daylight will now drop below 11 hours in Tampa. The peak of day length was back on the first day of summer when we had almost 14 hours of daylight.
We aren't done losing daylight, too. By the first day of winter, we will lose another 40 minutes of daylight, bringing us down to 10 hours and 20 minutes between sunrise and sunset.
Shorter days and lower sun angles also mean cooler temperatures. For the average high, we will drop from the lower 80s now to the upper 70s by the end of the month. The cooling continues with our average high falling down to the low 70s by January.