Daylight Hours: Sunrise, Sunset and Day Length

How long the day is, when the sun rises and sets, and the dates that actually turn the year. Computed for every state and checked against the U.S. Naval Observatory to the minute.

Next: the December solstice on December 21

Biggest daylight year

Alaska

Flattest daylight year

Hawaii

Latest sunsets on the clock

Alaska

States with two clocks

What time does it get dark where you are

Any US ZIP code

A state does not have a sunset. A point does. Enter a ZIP code and this gives you today’s sunrise, sunset, day length and civil twilight for that exact point, on the clock that ZIP actually keeps, plus the next three things that happen to the light there.

And here is the same thing worked through for one place, so the shape of the answer is clear before you ask for your own.

Today in Chicago, Illinois

October 19

Civil twilight begins6:39 AM
Sunrise7:08 AM
Solar noon12:35 PM
Sunset6:03 PM
Civil twilight ends6:31 PM
Daylight10h 55m

Reading the U.S. Naval Observatory for this point. The times above are this site’s own calculation until it answers.

These times assume a flat, unobstructed horizon. USNO puts it this way: “Sunrise and sunset conventionally refer to the times when the upper edge of the disk of the Sun is on the horizon, considered unobstructed relative to the location of interest.” A ridge, a hill or a building to your west will end your afternoon earlier than any published time, sometimes by twenty minutes or more, and no sunset table anywhere can tell you by how much.

Check this point and date at U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department

The one thing worth knowing

The earliest sunset is not the shortest day

Almost everybody assumes the year’s earliest sunset falls on the shortest day. It does not, anywhere in the United States, and it is usually about two weeks early. In Chicago the earliest sunset is 4:19 PM on December 8, while the shortest day is December 21. The latest sunrise then lands about two weeks the other side, on January 3.

The reason is that two things are moving at once. The day is getting shorter, and solar noon is drifting later, because the Earth’s orbit is an ellipse and its axis is tilted, so the sun does not cross the sky on a perfectly regular schedule. Through late autumn the drift is fast enough to push the evening end of the day later even while the day itself is still shrinking. The evening wins that race first, so the afternoons start drawing out before the solstice arrives, and the mornings keep getting darker for a fortnight after it.

Longest day June 21
Shortest day December 21
Earliest sunset December 8
Latest sunrise January 3

Hours of daylight through 2026 in Chicago. The two solstices sit at the top and the bottom of the curve. The earliest sunset and the latest sunrise, marked either side of the bottom, do not sit with them, and that gap is what this page is about.

The range

How different one country can be

The gap between the longest and shortest day of the year is set almost entirely by latitude, and the United States covers enough of it that the two ends barely describe the same phenomenon. Alaska swings 13h 56m between its longest and shortest day. Hawaii swings 2h 36m. Everything else in the country sits between them.

Anchorage, Alaska61.2 degrees north19h 23m down to 5h 27m

Longest day June 20
Shortest day December 21
Earliest sunset December 16
Latest sunrise January 1

Seattle, Washington47.6 degrees north15h 59m down to 8h 25m

Longest day June 21
Shortest day December 21
Earliest sunset December 10
Latest sunrise January 1

Chicago, Illinois41.9 degrees north15h 13m down to 9h 08m

Longest day June 21
Shortest day December 21
Earliest sunset December 8
Latest sunrise January 3

Honolulu, Hawaii21.3 degrees north13h 26m down to 10h 50m

Longest day June 20
Shortest day December 21
Earliest sunset November 26
Latest sunrise January 16

Each curve is scaled to its own place, so the shapes are comparable and the heights are not. That is deliberate: on a shared axis Honolulu’s year would be a flat line and the shape of it, which is the interesting part, would be invisible.

All fifty

Daylight by state, biggest year first

States ranked by how much their day length changes across the year
State	Reference city	Longest	Shortest	Change across the year
Alaska	Anchorage	19h 23m	5h 27m	13h 56m
Washington	Seattle	15h 59m	8h 25m	7h 34m
North Dakota	Fargo	15h 52m	8h 31m	7h 21m
Montana	Billings	15h 44m	8h 40m	7h 04m
Oregon	Portland	15h 41m	8h 42m	6h 59m
Minnesota	Minneapolis	15h 37m	8h 46m	6h 51m
Vermont	Burlington	15h 33m	8h 50m	6h 43m
Idaho	Boise	15h 27m	8h 56m	6h 31m
Maine	Portland	15h 26m	8h 56m	6h 30m
South Dakota	Sioux Falls	15h 26m	8h 56m	6h 30m
Wisconsin	Milwaukee	15h 23m	9h 00m	6h 23m
New Hampshire	Manchester	15h 22m	9h 00m	6h 22m
Massachusetts	Boston	15h 17m	9h 05m	6h 12m
Michigan	Detroit	15h 17m	9h 05m	6h 12m
Illinois	Chicago	15h 13m	9h 08m	6h 05m
Rhode Island	Providence	15h 13m	9h 08m	6h 05m
Iowa	Des Moines	15h 12m	9h 10m	6h 02m
Connecticut	Bridgeport	15h 09m	9h 12m	5h 57m
Nebraska	Omaha	15h 09m	9h 12m	5h 57m
Wyoming	Cheyenne	15h 08m	9h 13m	5h 55m
New Jersey	Newark	15h 06m	9h 15m	5h 51m
New York	New York City	15h 06m	9h 15m	5h 51m
Utah	Salt Lake City	15h 06m	9h 15m	5h 51m
Ohio	Columbus	15h 01m	9h 20m	5h 41m
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	15h 01m	9h 20m	5h 41m
Colorado	Denver	15h 00m	9h 21m	5h 39m
Delaware	Wilmington	15h 00m	9h 21m	5h 39m
Indiana	Indianapolis	14h 59m	9h 21m	5h 38m
Maryland	Baltimore	14h 57m	9h 24m	5h 33m
Missouri	Kansas City	14h 55m	9h 25m	5h 30m
West Virginia	Charleston	14h 51m	9h 29m	5h 22m
Kentucky	Louisville	14h 50m	9h 30m	5h 20m
Kansas	Wichita	14h 46m	9h 33m	5h 13m
Virginia	Virginia Beach	14h 42m	9h 38m	5h 04m
Tennessee	Nashville	14h 38m	9h 42m	4h 56m
Nevada	Las Vegas	14h 37m	9h 42m	4h 55m
Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	14h 34m	9h 46m	4h 48m
North Carolina	Charlotte	14h 32m	9h 47m	4h 45m
New Mexico	Albuquerque	14h 31m	9h 48m	4h 43m
Arkansas	Little Rock	14h 30m	9h 49m	4h 41m
Alabama	Huntsville	14h 29m	9h 49m	4h 40m
California	Los Angeles	14h 26m	9h 53m	4h 33m
Georgia	Atlanta	14h 24m	9h 55m	4h 29m
Arizona	Phoenix	14h 22m	9h 57m	4h 25m
South Carolina	Charleston	14h 19m	10h 00m	4h 19m
Mississippi	Jackson	14h 17m	10h 02m	4h 15m
Florida	Jacksonville	14h 07m	10h 12m	3h 55m
Louisiana	New Orleans	14h 04m	10h 13m	3h 51m
Texas	Houston	14h 03m	10h 14m	3h 49m
Hawaii	Honolulu	13h 26m	10h 50m	2h 36m

Computed for the largest city in each state at the 2020 census, which is named in the table because a state does not have a sunset. Use the ZIP box above for your own point.

Why the clock disagrees with the sun

Two states, one clock, different evenings

A time zone is fifteen degrees of longitude wide, which is a full hour of real solar time, and its clock is set for the meridian down the middle. So two places can keep the same clock and be the best part of an hour apart in what the sun is actually doing. Anchorage, Alaska runs 60 minutes behind its clock; Las Vegas, Nevada runs 19. That is why summer evenings feel endless in some states and finish early in others at the same latitude, and it has nothing to do with how far north either one is.

States ranked by how far the sun runs behind the clock
State	Reference city	Longest	Shortest	Sun vs clock
Alaska	Anchorage	19h 23m	5h 27m	+60 min
Idaho	Boise	15h 27m	8h 56m	+45 min
Indiana	Indianapolis	14h 59m	9h 21m	+45 min
Kentucky	Louisville	14h 50m	9h 30m	+43 min
Georgia	Atlanta	14h 24m	9h 55m	+38 min
Michigan	Detroit	15h 17m	9h 05m	+32 min
Ohio	Columbus	15h 01m	9h 20m	+32 min
Hawaii	Honolulu	13h 26m	10h 50m	+31 min
Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	14h 34m	9h 46m	+30 min
Kansas	Wichita	14h 46m	9h 33m	+29 min
Arizona	Phoenix	14h 22m	9h 57m	+28 min
Utah	Salt Lake City	15h 06m	9h 15m	+28 min
Florida	Jacksonville	14h 07m	10h 12m	+27 min
North Dakota	Fargo	15h 52m	8h 31m	+27 min

Minutes that solar noon falls after clock noon at each state’s largest city. A positive number means the sun runs late and the evenings feel long; a negative one means it runs early.

Fifteen states do not keep one clock

Time zone boundaries are set by the Department of Transportation under the Uniform Time Act, and they follow county lines almost everywhere. 15 states hold more than one clock or more than one daylight saving rule: Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas. In a few of them the line runs through a county rather than around it, which means two addresses a few miles apart genuinely keep different clocks. The ZIP box above resolves the clock from the ZIP’s county rather than from its state, and says so when the county itself is divided.

And two states do not change theirs

Hawaii and most of Arizona stay on standard time all year. The Uniform Time Act lets a state exempt itself from daylight saving time but does not let it adopt daylight time permanently, so the choice available to a state legislature is standard time all year or the current arrangement, and nothing else. The Navajo Nation inside Arizona does observe daylight saving time, and the Hopi Reservation inside that does not.

“Civil twilight begins in the morning, and ends in the evening, when the center of the Sun is geometrically 6 degrees below the horizon. This is the limit at which twilight illumination is sufficient, under good weather conditions, for terrestrial objects to be clearly distinguished.”

U.S. Naval Observatory, Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions

Common questions

Daylight questions

Why is the earliest sunset not on the shortest day?

Because the two are answering different questions. The shortest day is about the total, and the earliest sunset is about one end of it. Solar noon drifts later through late autumn and early winter, which drags the whole day later against the clock at the same time the day is getting shorter. The evening end loses that race first, so the earliest sunset lands about two weeks before the solstice and the latest sunrise about two weeks after it. In Anchorage the earliest sunset is December 16 and the shortest day is December 21.

Why does the sun set so much later in some states on the same clock?

Which state has the biggest change in daylight across the year?

How accurate are these times?

They are computed from the published NOAA solar position equations and reconciled against the U.S. Naval Observatory, which is the reference this site defers to. Across 343 USNO days at stations from Miami to Utqiagvik, every sunrise, sunset and civil twilight time agrees to within one minute and most agree exactly. They describe a flat, unobstructed horizon, so a ridge or a building to your west will end your afternoon earlier than any published time.

Which states do not change their clocks?

What is civil twilight, and is it the same as sunset?

Every state

Daylight hours state by state

13h 56m

Biggest swing, Alaska

Anchorage at 61.2 degrees north

2h 36m

Smallest swing, Hawaii

Honolulu at 21.3 degrees north

60 min

Sun latest against the clock, Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska time

States keeping more than one clock

boundaries from 49 CFR part 71

Every time on this page is computed from the published NOAA solar position equations and reconciled against the U.S. Naval Observatory, which is the reference this site defers to: across 343 USNO days at stations from Miami to Utqiagvik, every sunrise, sunset and civil twilight time agrees to within one minute and most agree exactly. Time zone boundaries and the daylight saving dates are statutory, from 49 CFR part 71 and 15 U.S.C. 260a. Daylight hours by state.