This is a good week to sleep in

The 2018 winter solstice (the shortest day of the year) is now safely behind us. But strangely enough, sunrise continues to occur later and later for a few days beyond the solstice. It's at its latest–7:21 am–this week, from January 1 through 6, and only then does it turn the corner and begin coming earlier each day.

However, even before the solstice, sunset also began to move later in the day (the earliest sunsets were from Dec. 6 through 12 at 4:20 pm). And next week, when sunrise and sunset both again are diverging, we may begin to sense that spring is coming.

These times and dates are specific for Palatine, Illinois, varying slightly for even nearby towns and villages, and more for places further away. But the pattern is similar (at least in the northern hemisphere.)

Tables of sunrise and sunset times are available by city and state (and international locations, too) on the U.S. Naval Observatory website at https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php.

See the full-size table for Palatine here.

By the way, the USNO folks offer a much more complete explanation of this phenomenon–three explanations, actually–at https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/rs_solstices.php. It's worth a look.