The earliest sunset occurs earlier than the shortest day

The earliest sunset occurs earlier than the shortest day – this is a kind of trivia I “discovered” a few years ago and I was VERY surprised. The site below shows sunrise and sunset times and you can check it yourself.

For Washington, DC, USA the times are:

Sunrise time on December 7 is 7:13:45 am.
Sunset time on December 7 is 4:45:58 pm (the earliest sunset).
Day length on December 7 is 09:32:13.

Sunrise time on December 21 is 7:23:21 am.
Sunset time on December 21 is 4:49:41 pm.
Day length on December 21 is 09:26:20 (the shortest day).

Sunrise time on January 4 is 7:26:58 am (the latest sunrise).
Sunset time on January 4 is 4:59:35 pm.
Day length on January 4 is 09:32:37.

http://sunrise-sunset.org/search?location=washington+dc

Here are screenshots from December 2015 and January 2016:

(Saturday, 5 December 2015)