Winter will not officially begin until the winter solstice on Dec. 21, but the earliest sunset of the year will occur two weeks sooner on Dec. 8, according to astronomers.
The sun will set Thursday before the average workday ends, at exactly 4:21 p.m., as reported by the website Time and Date. The sun will then set later each day moving forward. It will take more than a week for this change to become noticeable by a minute.
