February 3, 2021: Winter’s midpoint occurs this evening at 9:46 p.m. CDT. Groundhog Day is near the midway point of the season.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:01 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:09 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times for your location.
SUMMARY OF PLANETS IN 2022 MORNING SKY
In the northern hemisphere, winter’s midpoint occurs today at 9:46 p.m. CST. The season is 88 days, 23 hours, and 34 minutes long. The first day of spring – Vernal Equinox – occurs on March 20 at 10:33 a.m. CDT.
Days are lengthening. The sun is rising farther northward along the horizon, appearing higher in the south at noon, and setting farther northward. Today the sun is in the sun for 10 hours, 8 minutes at this latitude.
Groundhog Day, when the legendary marmots “predict” the weather until the first day of spring, occurs near winter’s midpoint. The Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts snow and that the rodent’s prediction is incorrect. Time will tell.
The date of equal daylight and darkness occurs in a week, when daylight equals the length of darkness, the amount of time between the end of evening twilight and the beginning of morning twilight.
Venus, Mars, and Mercury shine from the morning sky, While Jupiter is the bright evening planet with the crescent moon to its upper left.
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