Here’s When Iowa & Illinois Will Finally See A 7:00 p.m. Sunset Again

January felt like it's own year.

We made it through January, arguably the worst of the winter months because it's the longest.

We're all hanging in there with our seasonal depression and the awful, early sunsets. I don't know who signed off on allowing 4:30 p.m. sunsets but they're the worst. It's dark, it's cold, it's snowy, it sucks.

If you don't feel productive at night in the winter, you're not alone. None of us are getting anything done. It just stinks to leave work and it's already dark outside. That means Netflix & pajamas when we get home.

Timeline For A Later Sunset

The good news is that we won't have to wait too terribly long. Here's what we're looking at, according to Time & Date in Davenport.

Less sucky of a sunset time, I'll take it.

So we gain about 20 minutes of extra daylight in a week, that's a start.

It's satisfying that those are almost perfectly apart, but by now we deserve to have the sunset past the 5:00 p.m. hour, really.

Really though, are we there yet?

We finally get there:

As you may have figured out, March 9th is the spring daylight saving time change (it begins), so we'll spring forward. We'll lose an hour of sleep but we get an hour of daylight so we're not ready to go to bed at 5:00 p.m. anymore. That's a trade I'm willing to make.

And by the end of March, the sun will be setting around 7:30 p.m. It just makes my heart happy thinking about it.

Legislation Might End Daylight Saving Time

There have long been pushes in America to quit Daylight Saving Time. Most recently, the Sunshine Protection Act. It is a proposed federal law that would "lock the clock" and make DST the year-round standard. So we would spring forward and never fall back.

Illinois has it's own legislation that would also make DST the year-round time.

Daylight Saving Time was created in 1918, to help conserve energy costs during World War 1. It was part of the same law that established the five time zones in the U.S. that we still have now too.

Since World War 1 wrapped up a hot minute ago, people on both sides of the political aisle are calling to end Daylight Saving Time and hopefully ease some of the seasonal depression and mental toll that it takes on Americans.

So please, go enjoy those beautiful Midwest sunsets in the grocery store parking lots.