Toronto is still quite resembling a ski town after a barrage of snowstorms that have made this season feel like the first proper Canadian winter we’ve had in a while.
The City has since said cleanup efforts are set to take a few weeks, and while residents are climbing over snowbanks and navigating narrow sidewalks in the meantime, it can be hard to imagine that spring is just around the corner.
And, even before springtime officially kicks off on March 20, Ontario will be treated to some later sunsets that will be a welcome change to the depths of winter that we are just emerging from.
The days have been getting longer since the winter solstice on December 21, and we’ve since made it past the 10 the darkest weeks of what is, for many, the most dispiriting season.
In just over two weeks, clocks will “spring forward” an hour, marking the start of another cycle of Daylight Saving Time, and bringing with it an extra hour of daylight in the evenings right off the bat.
Toronto won’t see sunsets after 5 p.m. until 2025 and here’s how to stay sane until thenhttps://t.co/cUYKNFx5Zq
— blogTO (@blogTO) November 8, 2024
The practice, though criticized by some as outdated, pointless, and disruptive, has been followed in parts of Canada for more than a century. This year, it starts on Sunday, March 9 after clocks were turned back an hour last November.
While this means one less hour of sleep on the night of — as the change will shift clocks from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. local time in the wee hours of Sunday morning — it also means the sun will be sticking around later starting that very evening.
After a 6:16 p.m. sunset on Saturday, March 8, the star won’t bow below the horizon until 7:17 p.m. on Sunday, giving us what will feel like a longer day. Even though the sun will be rising around an hour later as a result, at 7:40 a.m. on Sunday compared to 6:42 a.m. on Saturday, many prefer the longer evenings to the earlier mornings.
And, of course, we are only moving towards more daylight on both ends as we move toward the spring and summer months.
By the first day of spring on the 20th, the sun will be making its first appearance at 7:20 a.m. and setting at 7:30 p.m. — a whole 3 hours and 14 minutes more daytime than on the winter solstice.
Canadians already sick of Daylight Saving Time just one day after changing clocks https://t.co/GtxsoGT8HA
— blogTO (@blogTO) March 11, 2024
Though provincial legislation has technically been passed to stop observing the disorienting time shift, doing so in practice would mean getting surrounding jurisdictions like New York and Quebec on board as well, which is unlikely.
Saskatchewan and Yukon are among the places in Canada that don’t recognize Daylight Saving Time as it is, along with parts of Quebec, B.C., and Southampton Island in Nunavut.
