This Is When Grand Rapids’ Sunsets Will Be Noticeably Shorter

To me, July has always been when summer feels like it's in full swing. Staying up late for the Fourth of July, the HEAT (especially this year, when cities all around Michigan broke heat records towards the end of June), that's when my family always goes camping and spends days at a time sitting on the beach.

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Surprisingly, we’re already heading back toward earlier nights and cooler evenings. June 20th is the longest day of the year and the official start of summer, while July 3rd marks the date when the Earth is farthest from the sun. Now that both these dates have passed, our sunsets will soon be noticeably shorter.

So, when should we expect our "summer nights" to be over?

Summer's Latest Night

The latest sunset of the summer occurred on June 26th. The sunset began at 9:17 p.m., with nautical twilight starting at 9:52 p.m. Astronomical Twilight, when darkness is setting in but it isn't yet peak nighttime, went from 9:52 p.m. to 10:37 p.m.

As we advance, every night will be a few seconds shorter. On the date of publication, the sunset begins at 9:15 pm, a mere 2 minutes earlier than it was on the 26th of June. With this in mind, the sunset won't go before 9 PM until July 28th. This still won't be a very noticeable difference for most of it.

READ MORE: The Dark End of a Once-Popular Michigan Zoo

It will not be until well into August that Michiganders will undoubtedly acknowledge that our nights are getting shorter. On August 26th, our sunset will begin at 8:20 p.m., and it will be completely dark by 9:30 p.m.

You can view the average amount of sunlight received each month below.