Scott Sistek 
Spokane at night. (Photo by Clay Elliot on Unsplash)
It’s getting awfully late really early this time of year.
Seattle’s sunsets just clicked earlier than 4:20 p.m., but you might be surprised to know that despite being one of the most northern cities in the Contiguous 48 states, we don’t have the earliest sunsets?
Believe it or not, the sun sets even earlier in Spokane. Their sunsets this week are at 3:58 p.m.(!)
That might seem strange since Seattle and Spokane are at nearly identical north latitude.
(Spokane is, at least according to Google, ever so slightly north of Seattle by fractions of a degree north latitude — win that bet at your next family or buddy gathering!)
Usually, you’d think it’s north vs. south as what would most affect your sunset times, and in a grand sense, you’re right — in winter, earlier sunsets come the farther north you go because the days are shorter due to the Earth’s tilt with respect to the sun.
On that front, Seattle and Spokane have just about identical daylight hours through the year — Thursday, the sun is above the horizon for 8 hours and 38 minutes in both Spokane and Seattle.
So why is the sun setting 20 minutes earlier in Spokane than Seattle?
In this case this is a manmade problem: Time zones.
Seattle and Spokane sit within the Pacific Time Zone so it’s the same time in both places. But Spokane being some 300 miles east of Seattle puts it closer to the sunrise each day and, in turn, closer to the sunset. Thus, Seattle’s sunsets (and sunrises) are 20 minutes later because it takes the Earth that much extra time to “spin” Seattle around to the dark side of the planet.
(Caribou, Maine is under a similar challenge hanging out in the eastern end of the Eastern Time Zone but just barely south of Seattle and Spokane. Their sunsets? 3:43 p.m.!)
HEY DENVER, WANT COMPANY?
Massive logistical headaches aside, why can’t Spokane theoretically thwart some of this by asking to move into the Mountain Time Zone? Then sunset wouldn’t be until nearly 5 p.m.
The caveat would be solar noon — the time when the sun is at the peak height of the day — would then get shifted back toward 2 p.m. (it usually hangs around 1 p.m. in the summer due to Daylight Saving Time). It would join a bunch of other cities that are probably in the wrong time zone, astronomically speaking, that already deal with this.
Indianapolis is in the Eastern Time Zone, but is so far west relative to the center of the time zone, it should probably be in the Central. (I know, Indiana and time zones are its own hornets nests of indecision over whether to be Team Eastern or Team Central). Solar noon pushes 2 p.m. there in the summer in the EDT places.
What’s wrong with a later solar noon? Some research shows our bodies are happiest when our day aligns with the sun, and being offset from having the middle of your day correspond to the middle of the sun’s day can throw you of.
(**Note: The views expressed in the video are their own. Love ya, Lubbock and Pensacola!**)
Spokane spontaneously joining the Mountain Time Zone would put it of course on its (far) western edge, making it the “Indianapolis” of the west coast?
I’ll leave it up to Spokanites to debate which is more advantageous. Might be simpler to just stay on DST, though that would present its own challenges of very late sunrises in the winter.
Seattle, FWIW, its pretty close to the sweet spot for being in the Pacific Time Zone. In fact, Thursday marked the day when solar noon was at exactly, 12:00 p.m. meaning there was the same amount of daylight before and after noon.
There just… wasn’t much of it on either side.
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