anybody know the answer?

[Guest]

looking at the local weather forecast on the bbc web page (cr*p all week, incidentally) I noticed that the days were now getting longer. However, sunrise is staying at the same time all week, whilst sunset gets later by one minute per day.

Why should this be? Why doesnt sunrise get earlier just as fast as sunset gets later?

 

[Gunfleet]

It's because we're bumping along the bottom of the slough of despond

 

[JonA]

All to do with Mean time, Solar time and equation of time, I think. It's a long while since I did Ocean YM theory.
Jonathan

JonA

 

[bedouin]

Simply put, the latest sunrise is not at the same time as the earliest sunset - I think the difference is about 14 days, but I can't remember which why round.

The sun does not cross the prime meridian at noon every day - caused by a combination of the elipical orbit of the earth, and the inclination of the earth's axis to it's orbit. If you want the gory details do a search on google for "Equation of Time" and you'll find loads of links that explain it much better than I can.