Bummer! Boise Will Lose Over An Hour of Sunlight in October

The end of Daylight Saving Time is still over a month away, but if your day takes you outside early in the morning or later in the evening, you’ve no doubt noticed that the days have gotten shorter!

According to the latest data from the United States Census Bureau, most people in Boise start their commute to work between 7:30 and 7:59 a.m. That means that before last week, it’s likely that the last time you drove to work before sunrise was March 30. Those mornings that you got to drive to work with the sun out just made you feel good. Overall, you were in a better mood! 

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But now that we’re into the first full week of fall, the amount of daylight you’ll enjoy during your commute and after work is changing rapidly. Since Labor Day, Boise’s lost about 65 minutes of sunlight and we’ve been losing sunlight at a rate of almost three minutes a day since mid-September. 

That might not seem super dramatic at the moment, but in October we’ll lose an additional 85 minutes of sunlight. The sun setting early will most definitely impact how you dress for certain activities like Boise State football games. Right now, the high temperature for October 7, the day of Boise State’s home game against San Jose State, is 62º. Kick-off is at 6 p.m. Sunset is at 7:15 p.m., which means it will be dark and probably colder by the second half. The predicted low is 41º.

You’ll notice the most dramatic loss of sunlight during the evening commute after the time change on November 5. Since we fall back, the sun sets at 5:30 p.m. that evening. The earliest the sun will go down is 5:07 p.m. in early December. 

If you have normal vision, this might not bug you. If you have astigmatism in either of your eyes, well then you’re preparing for a few annoying months of seeing this on your way to and from work. We see it too. And it’s the worst.