If we only change our clocks by one hour, why does the sun set five hours earlier?

Question

-Title-

I’ve just never understood why there’s such a vast difference between summer and winter sunsets. We only change our clock forward / back an hour, but the sun sets at 5, when it use to set at 9?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

Well, you need to remember that your figure of 5 hours is specific to your location (or at least your latitude). Different latitudes have different amounts of difference between summer and winter.

DST/Summer clock change is complicated enough, there is no point to further complicate things by having different places change different numbers of hours.

Plus it becomes completely useless in the polar regions anyway. And in the tropics, it is more disruptive than it is helpful, since there is little to no difference between summer and winter sunrise/sunset times.