Editing Openai/69304892-a0b0-800c-94bc-95e15766d912 (section)

=== Assistant: Yes — that’s exactly what happens in mid-latitudes like Ireland 53°N. ===
Yes — that’s exactly what happens in mid-latitudes like Ireland (~53°N). It seems counterintuitive, but it’s a standard effect of the equation of time combined with Earth’s tilt. Here’s why:
# Earliest sunset occurs before the winter solstice. - In Ireland, the earliest sunset happens around early to mid-December, typically a couple of weeks before the solstice (Dec 21). - After that, sunset starts getting later, even though the shortest day (least daylight) hasn’t occurred yet.
# Sunrise is still getting later. - From early December to late December, sunrise is still getting later each day. - So the total day length keeps shortening until the solstice, even though sunset is already starting to creep later.
# TimeAndDate tables are accurate - If you see sunset at 4:09 pm on Dec 18 and 4:10 pm on Dec 19, that’s consistent with the earliest sunset having occurred about 10 days earlier (around Dec 8). - This is entirely normal and is a quirk of the Earth’s orbit — the asymmetry between sunrise and sunset around the solstice.

In short: sunset starts getting later before the solstice, while sunrise continues to get later, so the shortest day still occurs at the solstice.

If you want, I can make a small table of sunrise, sunset, and day length in Ireland from Dec 1–25 so you can see this pattern clearly. Do you want me to do that?