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17. January 2026: Gaining 4 Minutes of Daylight as Winter Progresses
Published: January 17, 2026 · Period: 2026-01-17As we find ourselves on January 17, 2023, the sun has graciously decided to rise at 8:09 AM and will bid us farewell at 5:09 PM. This grants us a total of 540 minutes of daylight to bask in, while the night stretches luxuriously for 900 minutes. Today marks the 17th day of the year, and we are firmly entrenched in the depths of winter. It's been 27 days since the winter solstice, our shortest day, and we have 63 days to go before the spring equinox when day and night will once again shake hands in equality.
In the grand scheme of daylight, we've gained a modest 30 minutes since the equinox. Today, the sun has decided to tweak its schedule just a tad, granting us an extra four minutes of daylight. This is thanks to both an earlier sunrise and a later sunset, each contributing two minutes to our daylight coffers. It's as if the sun is slowly and somewhat reluctantly stretching its arms, preparing for the longer days ahead.
With no additional tidbits to share today, we conclude our daylight musings here. Enjoy the extra minutes, and remember, spring is just a couple of months away!
Table 1: Key figures for Daylight time in Basel on 2026-01-17
| label | value |
|---|---|
| Date | Jan 17, 2026 |
| Sunrise | 08:09 |
| Sunset | 17:09 |
| Daylight (min) | 540 |
| Daylight gain in minutes since yesterday | 4.0 |
Figure 1: Daylight in Basel by day of the Year in Basel
Additional resources: timeanddate
🤖 This text was generated with the assistance of AI. All quantitative statements are derived directly from the dataset listed under Data Source.