Though we are still a week away from the winter solstice, you will notice that evenings will begin to get brighter from Tuesday evening.
Generations of Irish people love one thing - the grand stretch in the evenings.
And usually that doesn't arrive until spring of course, but we're getting the beginning of it this year.
Allow us to explain, with a little help from an Irish expert on this.
When is the shortest day of the year?
The shortest day of the year still is December 21.
Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight, but it does not have the latest sunrise nor the earliest sunset of the year.
Many believe we start getting more sunshine after that date.
But here's the thing - we've already had the earliest sunset of the year.
It happened yesterday at 16:05.44.
So that means from Tuesday, we will see the beginning of the 'grand auld stretch' in the evenings.
Wait, how does that make sense?
It's all about the "Solar Noon".
The solar noon is the time of the day that the sun is at its highest point in the sky.
Though most believe the solar noon is constant.
Most clocks run on the idea that a day is exactly 24 hours. Technically, a day is the duration between one solar noon to the next.
During December, the solar noon moves later and later by about 30 seconds each day.
Which means that though December 21 is still the winter solstice, the evenings have already started to get brighter about a week before that.
If you want more, you can follow Éibhear Ó hAnluain's Grand Auld Stretch account.
Ladies and gentlemen, #TheGrandStretchIsBack.
