Distance from home for all 632 published sunrises

Nearest Sunrise
499 ft
Avg. Distance
17.5 mi
Furthest Sunrise
363 mi

11,065 total miles

This number, 11,065 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 mi1,149 ft363 mi8,335 mi
2020*8.4 mi499 ft311 mi1,925 mi
2021*14.3 mi624 ft141 mi272 mi
2022*28.0 mi625 ft272 mi533 mi

*Data is updated as I publish more sunrises


Distance to sunrise by month

Avg.
Distance
Nearest
Sunrise
Furthest
Sunrise
Total
Miles
Jan13.6 mi1,889 ft242 mi760 mi
Feb23.6 mi1,924 ft311 mi1,462 mi
Mar19.8 mi677 ft352 mi1,171 mi
Apr6.6 mi499 ft272 mi337 mi
May15.5 mi645 ft225 mi870 mi
Jun2.9 mi642 ft45 mi149 mi
Jul36.7 mi620 ft304 mi1,801 mi
Aug3.6 mi590 ft64 mi181 mi
Sep18.1 mi646 ft222 mi904 mi
Oct2.2 mi624 ft23 mi117 mi
Nov59.8 mi643 ft363 mi2,870 mi
Dec9.2 mi708 ft117 mi443 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 18 miles in one direction, that's actually a 36 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 mi1,889 ft117 mi263 mi
Feb2.0 mi1,924 ft11 mi55 mi
Mar36.6 mi1,149 ft352 mi1,134 mi
Apr1.8 mi2,364 ft6 mi55 mi
May26.9 mi2,179 ft225 mi833 mi
Jun2.9 mi2,328 ft7 mi87 mi
Jul57.2 mi0.6 mi304 mi1,774 mi
Aug5.4 mi0.6 mi64 mi168 mi
Sep25.1 mi1,165 ft222 mi754 mi
Oct3.2 mi2,071 ft23 mi101 mi
Nov91.5 mi2,076 ft363 mi2,745 mi
Dec11.9 mi2,344 ft117 mi367 mi

2020 distance from home

Avg.
Distance
Nearest
Sunrise
Furthest
Sunrise
Total
Miles
Jan7.5 mi2,308 ft64 mi136 mi
Feb48.0 mi2,427 ft311 mi1,391 mi
Mar1.4 mi0.6 mi3 mi36 mi
Apr0.4 mi499 ft2 mi8 mi
May1.6 mi645 ft7 mi36 mi
Jun3.5 mi642 ft45 mi59 mi
Jul1.6 mi620 ft12 mi26 mi
Aug0.7 mi590 ft7 mi13 mi
Sep0.5 mi646 ft3 mi8 mi
Oct0.7 mi639 ft3 mi12 mi
Nov7.8 mi656 ft116 mi125 mi
Dec5.0 mi1,012 ft54 mi75 mi