This coming Thursday will see the longest day of the year and even though the weather hasn’t been consistently bright in the lead up to Christmas, the signs are there that much of the country will see more dry weather rather than wet, especially compared to recent times.

Invercargill will be seeing the sun set on Thursday night (no cloud permitting) at approxiamately 9.40pm which is more than one hour longer than Gisborne which will see the sun sink in the west just after 8.30 pm.

The main centres will see the setting sun at the following times.

Auckland 8:40pm

Tauranga 8:37pm

Hamilton 8:42pm

Wellington 8:55pm

Christchurch 9:12pm

Dunedin 9:28pm

Very slowly the evenings will start to close in but this shouldn’t become obvious until the middle of January.

Dusk in the far south can hold until 10:15 to 10:30pm however in winter it’s the reverse and can be as early as 4.45pm.