The Campaign for More Winter Sun

Today the residents of New York will see less than nine and a half hours of daylight. This lack of sunlight can lead to many people feeling SAD. Which is partly why every year there are calls to end the annual switch to standard time from daylight saving time, the result of which is that the sun sets even earlier every cold winter day.

It is also why FiveThirtyEight  has asked the question Can You Make Winter Less Dark? Obviously the answer is no but FiveThirtyEight have produced an interactive map which can help you find the best place to live in the United States if you would like a later sunset (or if you are an early riser where you should live for the earliest sunrises).

Percent of days with late sunsets

Essentially the FiveThirtyEight interactive is a map of the United States showing each time zone and colored to show the percentage of days with early sunrises and late sunsets. This map also includes the option to color the map only by the percentage of days with early sunrises OR to color the map only by the percentage of days with late sunsets. 

Percent of days with early sunrises

If you select to view the percent of days with late sunsets then you can see how this percentage increases as you move east and south of each time zone line. Conversely if you select to view the percent of days with early sunrises then you can see how this percentage increases as you move west and south of each time zone line. 

Obviously the actual number of hours of daylight remain the same with or without Daylight Saving. However the time you get up in the morning could affect how many hours of daylight you see. If you are an early riser then putting the clocks back in the Fall will probably result in you being awake for all the hours of sunlight. If you are a late riser then the clocks going back means that you are likely to miss some daylight time during the winter months.

The Daylight Saving Time Gripe Assistant Tool is an interactive map which allows you to play around with a number of different settings to explore whether Daylight Saving suits your sleeping patterns. Using the map you can explore how the geography of sunrise and sunset is affected by Daylight Saving across the United States. If you enter the time that you would like sunrise or sunset to be then the map will show you where in the United States it is best to abolish or always keep Daylight Savings (and where it is best to keep the current system).

If you live in Europe you can use Logan Williams' Daylight Saving Time Gripe Assistant Tool, Europe Edition. Logan has tweaked Andy Woodruff's original Observable notebook so that it works with a map of Europe. Again to use the tool you just need to enter your favorite time for sunrise or sunset and the map will then show you where in Europe it is best to abolish or always keep Daylight Savings (and where it is best to keep the current system).