Distance from home for all 887 published sunrises

Nearest Sunrise
21 ft
Avg. Distance
16.0 mi
Furthest Sunrise
363 mi

14,198 total miles

This number, 14,198 miles, is certainly inflated. The true metric is miles from home, rather than miles traveled. For example, a week in Detroit required me to travel nearly 500 miles to get there, but once I was there, I was only traveling a few miles to sunrise.

However, it also doesn't calculate the round trip, or actual drive distance. The numbers you see here are as the crow flies (also known as the haversine formula), from my humble home to where the published sunrise photo was taken.

On April 9, 2020 I moved to a new apartment. And the data included reflects this difference. This move, now 650 feet from doorstep to toes in water, reflects the drop in average distance beginning in Spring 2020. All of this ties into a greater subject of traveling to and from sunrise, which is all part of the morning decision making, cost of executing this project, and ties into what makes the perfect sunrise experience.


Distance to sunrise by year

Avg.
Distance
Nearest
Sunrise
Furthest
Sunrise
Total
Miles
201922.8 mi1,150 ft363 mi8,335 mi
20206.5 mi499 ft311 mi2,361 mi
2021*18.9 mi621 ft310 mi1,758 mi
2022*30.1 mi624 ft303 mi1,743 mi

*Data is updated as I publish more sunrises


Distance to sunrise by month

Avg.
Distance
Nearest
Sunrise
Furthest
Sunrise
Total
Miles
Jan12.4 mi708 ft242 mi969 mi
Feb22.2 mi1,079 ft311 mi1,466 mi
Mar25.2 mi678 ft352 mi1,789 mi
Apr6.6 mi499 ft272 mi464 mi
May19.5 mi643 ft310 mi1,543 mi
Jun2.2 mi638 ft45 mi165 mi
Jul25.0 mi620 ft304 mi1,872 mi
Aug3.3 mi589 ft64 mi256 mi
Sep19.5 mi21 ft300 mi1,480 mi
Oct2.1 mi621 ft23 mi164 mi
Nov41.7 mi642 ft363 mi2,963 mi
Dec15.0 mi645 ft272 mi1,066 mi

Further questions, improvements, and notes...

  • Ideally, I'd like to replace the haversine formula with a directions API to get a more accurate commute. For example, Marquette to Belle Isle as the crow flies is 363 miles, but driving directions is closer to 460 miles. However, there is a direct cost with that many calls to a directions API, and I can't take on any more project costs that aren't directly covered.

  • How much work will it take to add a parameter to the sunrises where I was traveling?

  • I would also like to make note if I walked or if I drove. It's pretty safe to say that almost all distances greater than 3,000 feet (or so) I drove rather than walked. Most of the longer walks longer than that are memorable enough, and few enough, that they could manually be tagged.

  • April appears to be an anomaly. The furthest sunrise is just 6 miles away, significantly lower than most months. It raises a question for me. Is it an uninspired month? Do I not like to travel in April? There's a lot more data to come.

  • October, on the other hand, is very simple to explain the drop in further distance. October is in the middle of the Fall Gauntlet, when I'm hustling with Plaidurday and especially Fresh Coast Film Festival, making it difficult to get far away for sunrise.

  • How does this apply to travel costs and expenses for the project? At 16 miles in one direction, that's actually a 32 mile round trip. That's a lot of time and gas.

  • There is a lot more data to come for 2020, but there is certainly going to be a drop in commute distance beginning in March when the COVID pandemic shut down the world. Like everything, the project took some pivots at that time.

  • I love these sorts of data breakdowns. If you like this sort of thing, I'd encourage you to support BugsyLand so I can lean in further.

2019 distance from home

Avg.
Distance
Nearest
Sunrise
Furthest
Sunrise
Total
Miles
Jan8.5 mi1,888 ft117 mi263 mi
Feb2.0 mi1,925 ft11 mi55 mi
Mar36.6 mi1,150 ft352 mi1,134 mi
Apr1.8 mi2,364 ft6 mi55 mi
May26.9 mi2,181 ft225 mi833 mi
Jun2.9 mi2,327 ft7 mi87 mi
Jul57.2 mi0.6 mi304 mi1,774 mi
Aug5.4 mi0.6 mi64 mi168 mi
Sep25.1 mi1,163 ft222 mi754 mi
Oct3.2 mi2,071 ft23 mi101 mi
Nov91.5 mi2,074 ft363 mi2,745 mi
Dec11.9 mi2,343 ft117 mi367 mi

2020 distance from home

Avg.
Distance
Nearest
Sunrise
Furthest
Sunrise
Total
Miles
Jan6.8 mi2,306 ft64 mi210 mi
Feb48.0 mi2,430 ft311 mi1,391 mi
Mar1.4 mi0.6 mi3 mi44 mi
Apr4.4 mi499 ft117 mi132 mi
May3.5 mi643 ft68 mi108 mi
Jun2.1 mi641 ft45 mi64 mi
Jul1.3 mi620 ft12 mi39 mi
Aug0.6 mi589 ft7 mi17 mi
Sep0.7 mi645 ft7 mi21 mi
Oct0.9 mi638 ft6 mi28 mi
Nov4.9 mi656 ft116 mi147 mi
Dec5.2 mi645 ft55 mi161 mi

2021 distance from home

Avg.
Distance
Nearest
Sunrise
Furthest
Sunrise
Total
Miles
Jan22.4 mi708 ft119 mi247 mi
Feb2.9 mi0.9 mi7 mi12 mi
Mar1.8 mi678 ft5 mi7 mi
Apr0.4 mi923 ft1 mi2 mi
May40.8 mi653 ft310 mi327 mi
Jun1.1 mi657 ft6 mi12 mi
Jul8.2 mi694 ft55 mi57 mi
Aug7.6 mi841 ft55 mi69 mi
Sep50.5 mi649 ft300 mi455 mi
Oct2.9 mi621 ft15 mi32 mi
Nov0.6 mi669 ft2 mi4 mi
Dec76.5 mi662 ft272 mi536 mi

2022 distance from home

Avg.
Distance
Nearest
Sunrise
Furthest
Sunrise
Total
Miles
Jan49.8 mi1.3 mi242 mi249 mi
Feb1.6 mi1,079 ft3 mi8 mi
Mar151.0 mi847 ft303 mi604 mi
Apr68.6 mi773 ft272 mi274 mi
May46.0 mi682 ft267 mi276 mi
Jun0.5 mi638 ft2 mi2 mi
Jul0.4 mi668 ft1 mi2 mi
Aug0.4 mi659 ft1 mi2 mi
Sep41.8 mi634 ft250 mi251 mi
Oct0.7 mi624 ft1 mi3 mi
Nov13.7 mi642 ft61 mi69 mi
Dec1.2 mi710 ft2 mi2 mi