WeatherArchive / Sunrise & sunset
Sunrise and sunset times calculator
Sunrise, sunset, solar noon, the three twilights and day length for any place and any date, past or future, in the place’s own time zone. Calculated in your browser with the NOAA solar equations.
Find a place to see its sun times.
How sunrise and sunset are defined
Sunrise and sunset are the moments the upper edge of the sun touches a flat horizon. Because the atmosphere bends light, the sun is really about 0.83° below the horizon at that moment (0.57° of refraction plus the sun’s 0.27° radius). That is the convention used by the US Naval Observatory and NOAA, and by this calculator.
Civil twilight lasts until the sun is 6° down: still enough light for most outdoor activity. Nautical twilight (to 12°) is when sailors could once still see the horizon to take star sightings. Astronomical twilight (to 18°) ends when the sky is fully dark for faint-object astronomy.
Darkness after that still varies: a bright Moon can wash out faint stars for several nights either side of full, and why it waxes and wanes each month gets a narrated walk-through on ahaboo.
Why day length swings more the further you are from the equator
Earth’s axis is tilted about 23.4° to its orbit. Drag latitude and date: the curve is the year’s day length at that latitude, the pen marks your date.
16h 44m of daylight on 21 June at 52°N; the year ranges from 7h 45m to 16h 44m.
At the equator the tilt barely matters and days stay near 12 hours all year. Towards the poles the sun’s daily path is cut by the horizon at a steeper and steeper slant, so a small change in the sun’s declination adds or removes hours. Days are slightly longer than 12 h even at the equinox because refraction lifts the sun’s image and sunrise is timed from its upper edge.
Questions people ask
Why isn’t the earliest sunset on the shortest day?
Because solar noon drifts through the year (the equation of time). In the northern mid-latitudes the earliest sunset comes in early-to-mid December and the latest sunrise in early January, either side of the December solstice.
Why is the day longer than 12 hours on the equinox?
Sunrise and sunset are timed from the sun’s upper edge, and refraction lifts the sun’s image, so daylight on the equinox is about 12 hours 7–10 minutes at most latitudes.
How accurate are these sunrise and sunset times?
Within about one minute for most places between the polar circles, using the NOAA solar position equations. Near the poles, small changes in refraction can move the times by several minutes.
Do the times include daylight saving time?
Yes. They are shown in the place’s own time zone with the clock rules for that date.