What Time Is Sunset
What Time Is Sunset Today? Your Complete Guide to Finding Exact Times
The Quick Answer: How to Find Sunset Time for Your Exact Location
The sun does not set at a universal hour. It sets at a different moment for every city, town, and zip code on Earth — sometimes by just a few minutes, sometimes by several hours.
The fastest way to find today’s sunset time is to search “sunset time [USA]” directly in Google. The search engine pulls precise solar data and displays it at the top of the results page. Alternatively, your phone’s default weather app already has this built in — no extra downloads required.
If you want scientific-grade accuracy, bookmark timeanddate.com or use the NOAA Solar Calculator. Both tools calculate sunset based on your exact latitude and longitude, accounting for your timezone and the current date.
Why Does the Sunset Time Change Every Single Day?
Most people notice sunset creeping earlier in autumn or later in spring — but few know the actual reason why.
It comes down to two things: Earth’s elliptical orbit and its 23.5-degree axial tilt.
The orbit of our planet around the sun is not a complete circle. It follows an oval-shaped path, meaning some parts of the year Earth is slightly closer to the sun and moves a little faster. More importantly, the tilt of Earth’s axis means sunlight strikes different parts of the globe at different angles depending on the time of year.
During summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole tilts toward the sun. Daylight lasts longer, and sunset happens later in the evening. As autumn arrives and Earth continues its orbit, the angle shifts — days shorten and sunset arrives earlier and earlier. The winter solstice marks the earliest sunset of the year, after which daylight slowly rebuilds.
This cycle repeats every 365 days without fail, which is why sunset tomorrow will be a minute or two different from today.
How Your Location Changes Everything
Two people living 500 miles apart can experience sunset at noticeably different clock times — even on the same day.
Latitude has the biggest influence. Cities close to the equator, such as Miami or Singapore, have very consistent sunset times throughout the year, with only a few hours separating their earliest and later sunsets.Cities at high latitudes, like Anchorage or Reykjavik, swing dramatically. Anchorage sees sunset as early as 3:30 PM in December and as late as 11:40 PM in June.
Longitude also plays a quiet but real role. Within the same timezone, cities positioned to the east will see sunset a few minutes earlier than cities to the west — because the sun physically reaches them first as Earth rotates. Two cities at the exact same latitude but 100 miles apart east-to-west will have measurably different sunset times.
This is why “what time is sunset” is always a location-specific question. There is no single answer for an entire state or country.
Sunset Times Across Major U.S. Cities
The table below shows average sunset times during the summer and winter solstices. These are clock times — so Daylight Saving Time is already reflected in the summer column.
| City | Summer Solstice Sunset | Winter Solstice Sunset | Best Local Viewing Spot |
| New York, NY | 8:30 PM | 4:30 PM | Brooklyn Bridge Park |
| Los Angeles, CA | 8:08 PM | 4:48 PM | Santa Monica Pier |
| Chicago, IL | 8:30 PM | 4:22 PM | Navy Pier |
| Miami, FL | 8:15 PM | 5:35 PM | South Beach |
| Seattle, WA | 9:10 PM | 4:18 PM | Kerry Park |
| Anchorage, AK | 11:40 PM | 3:30 PM | Earthquake Park |
| Denver, CO | 8:30 PM | 4:40 PM | Red Rocks Amphitheatre |
| Phoenix, AZ | 7:40 PM | 5:28 PM | South Mountain Park |
Notice that Miami barely shifts between seasons — only about two and a half hours. Seattle swings nearly five hours. Anchorage swings over eight. That’s latitude doing its work.
The Science Behind Those Colors in the Sky
The orange, red, and pink hues that appear at dusk aren’t random — they’re the result of a well-understood physical process called Rayleigh scattering.
The entire visual spectrum—violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red—is present in sunlight. Each color travels in a wave of a different length. Blue and violet light have very short, tightly packed waves. Red and orange light travel in long, slow waves.
When the sun is directly overhead, its light passes through a relatively thin slice of atmosphere before reaching your eyes. Blue light scatters in all directions, which is why the midday sky looks blue.
At sunset, the sun sits near the horizon, and its light must travel through a much thicker layer of atmosphere to reach you. That extra atmospheric distance scatters nearly all of the blue light away before it arrives. What remains — the longer red and orange wavelengths — paints the sky in warm tones.
The more particles in the atmosphere (dust, smoke, humidity), the more vivid the colors. This is why sunsets after wildfires or desert dust storms are often strikingly intense.
Understanding Twilight: It Doesn’t Get Dark All at Once
Most people treat sunset as the moment darkness arrives. In reality, the sky transitions through three distinct twilight stages after the sun drops below the horizon.
Civil Twilight
The sun is between 0° and 6° below the horizon. The sky is still bright enough to see clearly without artificial light. Outdoor activities, driving, and casual photography are still easy. Civil twilight typically lasts 20–30 minutes after sunset at mid-latitudes.
Nautical Twilight
The horizon is still faintly visible at sea, but stars are becoming clear. This is the phase sailors historically used to navigate — visible horizon plus visible stars meant they could calculate their position with a sextant.
Astronomical Twilight
The sky is dark enough for serious stargazing and telescope use. Once astronomical twilight ends, the sky is considered fully dark.
Understanding these phases matters practically. If you’re hiking back to your car “before sunset,” you still have 45–60 minutes of usable light after the official sunset time.
Daylight Saving Time: Why the Clock Jumps
Twice a year, Daylight Saving Time (DST) artificially shifts our clocks — and with them, the time at which sunset appears on the clock.
When clocks “spring forward” in March, sunset suddenly appears an hour later on the clock overnight. The sun hasn’t changed its behavior at all; your clock simply moved. Sunset is now after 7 PM while it was at 6 PM yesterday, which many people believe to be a wonderful transition in the spring.
The fall rollback in November reverses this, pushing sunset an hour earlier by clock time. This is why late October and early November often feel like the darkest evenings, even though winter solstice is still weeks away.
Not all nations, or even all Americans state — observes DST. Arizona does not alter its clocks, with the exception of the Navajo Nation. As a result, there are times when Phoenix and Los Angeles are in the same time zone and times when they are an hour apart.
The Best Free Tools to Track Sunset Today
You don’t need to understand orbital mechanics to get an accurate sunset time. These tools do all the work instantly:
Google Search — Simply type “sunset time” and Google detects your location automatically. Fast, free, and accurate for most uses.
Timeanddate.com — The gold standard for solar data. Enter any city on Earth and get sunrise, sunset, and all three twilight times. Also shows solar noon and day length.
NOAA Solar Calculator — Built by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Offers lat/long precision and historical data. Useful for research or exact planning.
Weather Apps (iOS/Android default apps) — Both Apple Weather and Google Weather include sunrise and sunset times on the daily forecast screen.
PhotoPills — Designed for photographers. Shows the exact compass direction (azimuth) the sun will set, overlaid on a map. Invaluable for scouting locations before a shoot.
The Photographer’s Ephemeris — Another pro-level tool showing sun and moon positions, ideal for planning outdoor photography.
Golden Hour: How to Use Sunset Time for Photography
The “golden hour” is the period roughly 30–60 minutes before sunset (and a matching window after sunrise). During this time, the sun sits low on the horizon and produces soft, warm, directional light — the kind that flatters almost every subject.
Unlike the harsh shadows of midday light, golden hour light wraps around faces, landscapes, and objects with a gentle warmth. It’s why professional portrait and landscape photographers schedule shoots around it.
Practical tips for golden hour photography:
- Arrive at least 20 minutes before golden hour begins — the best moments often come when you least expect them
- Set your white balance to “Cloudy” or “Shade” to enhance the warm tones rather than neutralizing them
- Shoot with the sun behind your subject to create rim lighting and silhouettes
- Use a lower ISO to keep images clean in the reduced light
- Bracket your exposures — the light changes fast, and the “perfect” exposure window is often just a few minutes
Knowing the exact sunset time is the starting point for all of this planning.
Does Weather Affect Sunset Time?
The actual solar event — the moment the sun’s upper edge crosses the horizon — is completely unaffected by weather. Clouds, storms, and humidity have no influence on when the sun sets.
What weather dramatically affects is your experience of the sunset.
Heavy overcast can completely hide the sun, making the sky turn gray and dim well before the official sunset time. You might not even realize sunset occurred.
Scattered or broken clouds, on the other hand, often produce the most spectacular sunsets. The cloud undersides act as reflective surfaces, bouncing the red and orange light across a wider portion of the sky. A partly cloudy evening with some humidity in the air frequently produces better colors than a perfectly clear sky.
Smoke from wildfires, while dangerous for air quality, also tends to produce deep red and orange sunsets because the particulates scatter blue light especially effectively.
Planning Outdoor Activities Safely Around Sunset
For hikers, cyclists, trail runners, and anglers, knowing the sunset time isn’t just about enjoying the view — it’s a basic safety consideration.
Moving through unfamiliar terrain after dark significantly increases the risk of falls, getting lost, or misjudging distances. Cell coverage in wilderness areas is often poor, making a twisted ankle after dark a serious problem.
A practical safety buffer:
- Try to complete your task 30 to 45 minutes prior to dusk, rather than right before. This gives you a margin if things take longer than expected.
- Keep civil twilight in mind — you have roughly 20–30 minutes of additional usable light after sunset, but don’t rely on this as planned time.
- Always carry a headlamp, even on afternoon hikes. Headlamps are light, cheap, and invaluable if you misjudge your pace.
- Check sunset time the morning of the activity, not the day before — times shift meaningfully week to week during spring and fall.
The Quiet Health Benefits of Watching the Sunset
There’s a reason people instinctively pause and look west in the evening. Watching the sun go down has measurable effects on the body and mind.
Melatonin, the hormone that controls your sleep-wake cycle, is released by your brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus when natural light gradually dims. Spending time in natural fading light, rather than staring at a bright screen, helps calibrate your circadian rhythm and can lead to deeper, more consistent sleep.
Beyond the biology, the act of pausing to watch the sky is a form of passive attention restoration. Unlike tasks that demand focused concentration, watching shifting colors requires nothing from you. Research in environmental psychology suggests that even brief exposures to natural beauty reduce cortisol levels and lower perceived stress.
It doesn’t require a beach or a mountain vista. A clear view of the western horizon — even from a parking lot — offers the same biological signal to the brain.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time does New York’s sunset occur today?
New York sunset times range from approximately 4:28 PM around the winter solstice in December to 8:31 PM near the summer solstice in late June. For today’s precise time, search “sunset NYC” in Google or check timeanddate.com — they pull real-time solar calculations for your exact date.
Does sunset time change by zip code?
Yes, meaningfully. Longitude determines when the sun reaches you as Earth rotates, so towns just 30–50 miles east or west can see sunset one to three minutes apart. Over longer distances, the difference becomes significant.
What time does the sun set during the equinox?
Near both the spring and fall equinoxes, sunset occurs close to 6:00 PM local time for most mid-latitude locations. The equinox is the point where day and night are closest to equal length.
Why is sunset later in summer?
Earth’s axial tilt causes the Northern Hemisphere to face the sun more directly during summer months. This increases the arc the sun travels across the sky and delays the moment it dips below the horizon.
What is golden hour, and when does it begin?
Golden hour, which is defined as the gentle, warm, directed light created when the sun is low in the sky, starts about 45 to 60 minutes before the official sunset time. Photographers, filmmakers, and outdoor enthusiasts plan around it for its flattering visual quality.
Can I use sunset time for stargazing planning?
Yes — astronomical twilight ends about 70–90 minutes after sunset at mid-latitudes. That’s when the sky is dark enough for deep-sky observations. Applications such as SkySafari or Stellarium display the end of astronomical twilight and sunset simultaneously.
The sun sets somewhere on Earth every second of every day. Knowing when it will set in your corner of the world turns an ordinary evening into something you actually planned to witness.
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