Summer is coming: Longer days as we near the tail end of winter

Summer lovers rejoice.

We are gaining 10 minutes a week of extra sunlight as we hit the tail end of winter, says WeatherWatch's Philip Duncan.

Five weeks on from the shortest day of the year, our days are getting longer.

Duncan says the upper North Island has passed the 10-hour mark of daily sunshine, and Auckland is now getting 10 hours and 7 minutes a day. Whangarei is enjoying the most daily sunshine hours at 10 hours and 9 minutes.

The lower South Island, by comparison, has 50 minutes less daylight. Invercargill is recording 9 hours and 19 minutes per day.

The longer evenings are a forerunner to the summer solstice just before Christmas, when the sun sets in the upper North Island after 8.30pm.

Our days get longer at the end of September as daylight saving kicks in on the last Sunday of the month, says Duncan.

On September 25, 2am becomes 3am, giving us an extra hour of daylight in the evenings.

Sunshine count

• Whangarei: 7:25am-5:34pm (10 hours and 9 minutes)
• Auckland: 7:24am-5:31pm (10 hours and 7 minutes)
• Gisborne: 7:14am-5:14pm (10 hours)
• New Plymouth: 7:31am-5:29pm ( 9 hours 58 minutes)
• Wellington: 7:34am-5:21pm (9 hours and 47 minutes)
• Christchurch: 7:48am-5:23pm (9 hours and 25 minutes)
• Dunedin: 8:03am-5:25pm (9 hours and 22 minutes)
• Invercargill: 8:13am-5:32pm (9 hours and 19 minutes)