As August unfolds, daylight begins to shorten, with up to two hours less daylight by the end of the month.

Now is the time to make the most of the remaining long days, as the descent into the shorter, cooler days of autumn is already underway.

The amount of daylight through the month of August decreases by 3 - 4 minutes per day, depending on your location.

For London, for example, the sunset at the start of the month is around 8.30 pm, but by the end, is 7.45 pm. For Dublin, sunset times will shift from 9.10 pm to 8.20 pm.

By the end of the month, some areas could have as much as one to two hours less daylight than at the start of the month.

Locations further north will experience the greatest change in daylight hours due to their latitude, with Lerwick in the Shetland Islands seeing one of the largest differences; from a 9.45 pm sunset to 8.15 pm. A loss of 1.5 hours of daylight over the course of the month.

This loss of daylight is due to the Earth’s axial tilt, which causes the Northern Hemisphere to gradually shift away from the Sun after the summer solstice in June, when daylight is longest.