The skies are putting London through it right now; covering us with the damp droplets of sleet (or ‘snain’, as one genius on the internet coined it). But next week, the first 6pm sunset of the year arrives in London.
Tonight (March 13), the dramatic shift from 5:59pm to 6:01pm is going to floor us all to the point of delirium, likely causing a trolly dash for Pimm’s and disposable barbecues.
Okay, that’s probably not going to be happening down your local big Tesco, but it might provide you with a cartful of extra endorphins when you leave work and have a decent chunk of daylight to play with.
Better still, it will be one more indication that summer is, in fact, not just a mirage; an image we remember in distant flashes from around August 2022, but something we can look forward too knowing that the next time we’ll see a pre-6pm sunset in London will be October 2023.
We have sunset gurus Time and Date to thank for this important information – their handy table shows us that it might be less of a Blue Monday next week, with the first 6pm sunset of the year in London slated for March 13.
Just to hammer it home even further, this also marks the first sunset after 6pm in London since all the way back in October 18, 2022. Winter’s cruel grip is finally giving us some mercy, it seems (not that the skies would suggest that today).
While we are all hankering for the 9pm sunsets that June bestows upon London, we’ll take this small win (for now) as we strap into a DeLorean hurtling us towards summer in London. Next stop, cherry blossom season.
Get clued up on the habits of the sun’s London shifts here.