Meteorological autumn began on Sept. 1, but astronomical autumn, also known as calendar autumn or the autumnal equinox, is on Sept. 22.
How much daylight we lose after the first day of summer is dependent upon our latitude. And that’s because the Earth is tilted at 23.5 degrees.
The North Pole is therefore sometimes pointed toward the sun and sometimes pointed away from the sun, whereas we here in Miami are closer to the equator, so there will be less of a difference from season to season.
Northern areas can lose as much as three and a half hours of daylight from the first day of summer to the first day of autumn, where southern areas (like South Florida) lose only a couple of hours, so the difference is much less noticeable.
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For Miami, the first day of summer has 13 hours and 44 minutes of daylight, compared to 12 hours and 6 minutes on the first day of autumn and 10 hours and 31 minutes on the first day of winter.
A place like Minneapolis, for example, sees a huge swing. The first day of summer has 15 hours and 36 minutes of daylight, versus 12 hours and 8 minutes on the first day of autumn and 8 hours and 46 minutes on the first day of winter.
This may be a huge factor in determining if we stop changing our clocks twice a year, something we here in Florida may find silly and exhausting. For folks up north, the daylight is much more limited, and that means if you don’t change the clocks, kids might be going to school when it feels like the middle of the night.
