Sunrise & Sunset Calculator
Solar times for any location & date
Select a city and date to see sunrise and sunset times.
Day Length
Sunrise and Sunset Times Explained
In New York, sunrise on June 21, 2026 is at 5:25 AM and sunset at 8:31 PM EDT, a 15 hour 6 minute day; on December 21 the day shrinks to 9 hours 15 minutes. Pick a city and date above to get sunrise, sunset, solar noon, golden hour and all three twilights, computed with the NOAA solar method and shown in local clock time with daylight saving applied.
Sunrise and Sunset in US Cities, 2026
Local clock time on the equinoxes and solstices, with daylight saving time applied where it is in force (Anchorage included). Times are for sea level and a flat horizon.
| City | Mar 20 | Jun 21 | Sep 22 | Dec 21 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 6:59 AM / 7:08 PM | 5:25 AM / 8:31 PM | 6:44 AM / 6:53 PM | 7:17 AM / 4:32 PM |
| Chicago | 6:54 AM / 7:03 PM | 5:16 AM / 8:29 PM | 6:38 AM / 6:48 PM | 7:15 AM / 4:23 PM |
| Los Angeles | 6:56 AM / 7:05 PM | 5:42 AM / 8:08 PM | 6:41 AM / 6:49 PM | 6:55 AM / 4:48 PM |
| Seattle | 7:12 AM / 7:22 PM | 5:12 AM / 9:11 PM | 6:56 AM / 7:07 PM | 7:55 AM / 4:20 PM |
| Miami | 7:25 AM / 7:32 PM | 6:30 AM / 8:15 PM | 7:09 AM / 7:17 PM | 7:03 AM / 5:35 PM |
| Anchorage | 8:00 AM / 8:15 PM | 4:20 AM / 11:43 PM | 7:44 AM / 7:59 PM | 10:14 AM / 3:41 PM |
Notice that on the equinoxes the day is already a few minutes longer than 12 hours everywhere. Sunrise and sunset are measured at the top edge of the Sun, and the atmosphere bends light over the horizon, which together add about 7 to 11 minutes of daylight in the lower 48 states.
Day Length by Latitude
Hours of daylight (sunrise to sunset) on the two solstices of 2026. The further from the equator, the bigger the swing between summer and winter.
| Place (latitude) | June 21 | December 21 |
|---|---|---|
| Equator (0°) | 12h 07m | 12h 08m |
| Miami (25.8°N) | 13h 45m | 10h 32m |
| Los Angeles (34.1°N) | 14h 26m | 9h 53m |
| New York (40.7°N) | 15h 06m | 9h 15m |
| Seattle (47.6°N) | 15h 59m | 8h 26m |
| London (51.5°N) | 16h 38m | 7h 50m |
| Anchorage (61.2°N) | 19h 22m | 5h 27m |
| Fairbanks (64.8°N) | 21h 50m | 3h 41m |
| Utqiagvik, Alaska (71.3°N) | 24h (midnight sun) | 0h (polar night) |
Around the equinoxes the day length changes fastest: about 1.5 minutes per day in Miami, 2.7 minutes in New York and 4 minutes in London.
Twilight and Golden Hour in Minutes
How long after sunset each stage ends in New York. The same gaps apply before sunrise in the morning.
| Date | Civil dusk (Sun at 6° below) | Nautical dusk (12°) | Astronomical dusk (18°) | Evening golden hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 20 | 27 min | 59 min | 92 min | 36 min |
| Jun 21 | 33 min | 76 min | 127 min | 41 min |
| Sep 22 | 27 min | 59 min | 92 min | 36 min |
| Dec 21 | 31 min | 66 min | 99 min | 44 min |
What each stage means
- Civil twilight: enough light for most outdoor activity without lamps; bright planets and the brightest stars start to show near its end.
- Nautical twilight: the horizon is still visible at sea, which is what sailors needed for star sightings.
- Astronomical twilight: the last trace of sunlight leaves the sky once the Sun is 18° below the horizon.
- Golden hour: here defined as the Sun between the horizon and 6° up. It lasts about 27 to 30 minutes at the equator, 36 to 44 minutes in New York and over 2 hours in Fairbanks in June. In Anchorage on December 21 the Sun never climbs past 6°, so the whole short day is golden.
How the Calculator Works
The page uses the method behind the NOAA Solar Calculator. For your date it finds the Sun's declination and the equation of time (the gap between clock noon and sundial noon, up to about 16 minutes), then solves for the hour angle at which the Sun's centre sits 0.833° below the horizon. That 0.833° is 0.567° of average refraction plus the Sun's 0.267° radius. The Sun's position is then recomputed at the moment of each event and the time refined, which keeps results within about a minute for places below the polar circles.
Polar day and polar night
When the Sun cannot reach the horizon at all, there is no sunrise to report. The calculator says so directly: midnight sun when the Sun stays up all day, polar night when it stays down. At Utqiagvik, Alaska the last sunset of spring comes on May 10, 2026 and the Sun does not set again until August 1; in winter it sets on November 18 and next rises on January 23, 2027. Twilight rows can show "None" for the same reason, for example in London in June, where the Sun never sinks 18° below the horizon and the sky never gets fully dark.
Why your view can differ by a few minutes
Refraction changes with air temperature and pressure, and hills or buildings hide the true horizon. Height works the other way: from 1,000 meters (about 3,300 feet) above flat surroundings you see the Sun roughly 5 minutes earlier at 40° latitude, because you look over the curve of the Earth.
Method and sources. Solar position and event times follow the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory Solar Calculator method (based on Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms): Julian day, solar declination, equation of time and the hour angle for a solar altitude of −0.833° (sunrise and sunset), −6°, −12° and −18° (twilights) and +6° (golden hour), refined at each event. Every time and duration in the tables above was computed with the same code the calculator runs, then converted to local time with the IANA time zone database, including daylight saving time. Twilight definitions: US Naval Observatory. Results are for sea level and a clear, flat horizon.
Sunrise & Sunset Questions
Sunrise and sunset times depend entirely on your location and the date. Select your city and today's date above for exact local times. As a guide, in New York in 2026 sunrise ranges from 5:24 AM in mid June to 7:25 AM on October 31, the last day of daylight saving time, and sunset from 4:28 PM in early December to 8:31 PM in late June. Near the equator the times barely move: in Singapore the Sun rises close to 7:00 AM all year. Near the Arctic Circle, the sun can be above the horizon for 24 hours in summer (midnight sun) and completely absent in winter (polar night).
Sunrise is the moment the upper edge of the Sun's disk appears at the horizon. Civil twilight begins when the Sun is 6 degrees below the horizon: the sky is bright enough for most outdoor activities without artificial light. Civil twilight ends at sunrise (morning) or begins at sunset (evening). Nautical twilight occurs when the Sun is 6 to 12 degrees below the horizon; the horizon is still visible at sea, used by sailors for celestial navigation. Astronomical twilight occurs when the Sun is 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon; it is dark enough for most astronomical observations. Astronomical night begins when the Sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon.
Golden hour is the period shortly after sunrise and before sunset when sunlight has a warm, soft, golden quality. The Sun is near the horizon, so light travels through more atmosphere, scattering blue wavelengths and leaving warm orange and red tones. Shadows are long and soft because the light source is low. In photography, golden hour light is flattering for portraits, dramatic for landscapes, and makes colors pop. The duration of golden hour varies: near the equator the Sun climbs steeply and it lasts only about 27 to 30 minutes, in New York about 36 to 44 minutes, and at high latitudes in summer it can stretch past two hours. The blue hour is the period just before sunrise and just after sunset with a diffuse, blue-toned light.
The change in sunrise/sunset times is caused by the Earth's axial tilt (23.5 degrees) and its elliptical orbit around the Sun. In summer (in the Northern Hemisphere), the North Pole is tilted toward the Sun, giving northern locations longer days. In winter, the tilt is away from the Sun, giving shorter days. At the equinoxes (around March 20 and September 22 or 23), day and night are approximately equal everywhere. At the solstices (around June 21 and December 21), the difference is at its maximum. Near the Arctic Circle (66.5°N), this leads to the midnight sun in summer and polar night in winter. The rate of change is fastest near the equinoxes and slowest near the solstices.
Solar noon is when the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky: the midpoint between sunrise and sunset. At solar noon, shadows are shortest and sunlight is most intense. Solar noon is not the same as 12:00 PM clock time because of two factors: (1) your longitude within your time zone, since the Sun moves 1 degree west every 4 minutes, and many places sit far from their zone's central meridian (Kashgar in western China runs on Beijing time, so its solar noon is close to 3:00 PM), (2) the equation of time, a seasonal shift of up to about 16 minutes caused by Earth's tilted, elliptical orbit, and (3) daylight saving time, which adds an hour. In New York solar noon is 11:54 AM EST on December 21 and 12:58 PM EDT on June 21.
The midnight sun occurs above the Arctic Circle (66.5°N) and Antarctic Circle (66.5°S) when the Earth's axial tilt keeps the Sun above the horizon continuously for 24 hours. In Tromsø, Norway (69.6°N), the midnight sun is usually quoted as May 20 to July 22; counting refraction and the Sun's upper edge, as this calculator does, the Sun does not set from about May 18 to July 25. At the North Pole, the sun is above the horizon continuously from the March equinox to the September equinox (6 months of sunlight). Polar night is the opposite: continuous darkness. In Tromsø, polar night lasts from November 27 to January 15. The further from the circles, the shorter these phenomena last. Fairbanks, Alaska (64.8°N) gets 21 hours 50 minutes between sunrise and sunset at the summer solstice, and the sky never gets fully dark, but it is south of the Arctic Circle and has no true midnight sun.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of moving the clock forward one hour in spring and back in fall. The US currently starts DST on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. DST moves both sunrise and sunset one hour later on the clock. In New York on June 21, 2026 the Sun rises at 5:25 AM and sets at 8:31 PM EDT; on standard time those would read 4:25 AM and 7:31 PM. The Sun itself has not changed, only the clock. Arizona (except the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, and US territories do not observe DST. In July 2026 the US House passed the Sunshine Protection Act to make daylight time permanent, but it has not become law, so clocks still change. The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end the clock change, but it was never implemented and EU clocks still change twice a year.
Sunrise and sunset times are calculated using the Sun's position in the sky, which depends on: (1) the date (determines Earth's position in its orbit and thus the Sun's declination), (2) latitude (how far north or south you are), and (3) longitude (your east-west position affects the clock time). The calculation uses the NOAA Solar Calculator algorithm, which computes the Julian date, solar mean anomaly, equation of center, solar declination, solar hour angle, and finally the hour angle at sunrise/sunset (when the Sun is 0.833 degrees below the horizon, accounting for atmospheric refraction and the Sun's diameter). This is the same algorithm used by this calculator.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day is the summer solstice, around June 21. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the opposite: December 21. At the summer solstice, the North Pole is maximally tilted toward the Sun. The exact length of the longest day varies by latitude: at the equator, every day is approximately 12 hours. At latitude 40°N (e.g., New York), the longest day is about 15 hours. At 52°N (e.g., London), about 16.5 hours. At 60°N (e.g., Oslo), about 18 hours 50 minutes. At 66.5°N (Arctic Circle), the sun never fully sets at the solstice. The "day" is gradually getting longer or shorter at 1 to 4 minutes per day, with the fastest change occurring near the equinoxes.
How quickly it gets dark after sunset depends on latitude and the time of year. At the equator the Sun sets nearly vertically, so civil twilight ends about 21 to 23 minutes after sunset and full darkness arrives after about 70 to 75 minutes. In New York civil twilight ends 27 to 33 minutes after sunset and full darkness (end of astronomical twilight) comes 92 minutes after sunset at the equinoxes, 99 minutes in December and 127 minutes in late June. In London and further north in June it never gets fully dark. This calculator shows the exact twilight end times for your location.
Because solar noon drifts later through December, driven by the equation of time. In New York the earliest sunset, 4:28 PM, comes around December 6, two weeks before the solstice, while the latest winter sunrise, about 7:20 AM, arrives in the first week of January. The shortest day, December 21, sits between the two.
No. The Sun rises about 4 minutes later for every degree of longitude you move west. Boston and Detroit share Eastern Time, but Detroit is about 12 degrees further west, so its sunrise and sunset run roughly 45 to 50 minutes later on the clock than Boston's on the same day.
No. Sunrise and sunset refer to the upper edge of the Sun touching the horizon, corrected for refraction. The full disk clears the horizon about 2 to 4 minutes after sunrise in the lower 48 states, and longer further north.