Over the weekend, I spent some time sitting around a huge campfire with my campground friends during our get-together to honor the memory of a friend's grandson, and a kind of unofficial celebration to mark the (almost) ending of another great camping season.

During the evening, one of the conversations was about how the sun is setting so much sooner now. For a good part of the summer, our campfires didn't begin until around 9 p.m., but now we're lighting up the firewood at around 6:30 p.m. I suppose the upside is, our gatherings are lasting longer, time-wise. I also noticed my campsite solar lights aren't holding a charge as long as they did over the summer.

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I kind of enjoyed daylight beginning around 4:30 to 5 a.m. and sunset not happening until past 8:30 p.m. Not now. According to a graph from the National Weather Service Binghamton Facebook page, on Sunday, September 26th, sunrise began at 6:56 a.m. and sunset was at 6:54 p.m. That was 12 hours of sunlight. On June 22nd, sunrise was at 5:28 a.m. and sunset was 8:43 p.m. That was just over 15 hours of sunlight.

This is another reason my favorite season is summer. You know that we will continue to lose daylight through the first day of winter, December 21st. On that day, sunrise will be 7:29 a.m. and sunset will be 4:35 p.m. Approximately 9 hours of sunlight. That's depressing. Sure, the cycle will reverse after that, but ever so slowly as we deal with at least three months of winter weather.

As for average temperatures, the National Weather Service Binghamton Facebook page notes what the current highs and lows are along with what we can expect on November 1st and December 1st. I've got to be honest, it's not something I'm looking forward to, but it's what we deal with every winter, and we'll get through it.

via National Weather Service Binghamton Facebook

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