Sunrise & sunset almanac · 2026

Why the earliest sunset comes before the shortest day

In New York the sun sets earliest around December 7, two weeks before the winter solstice, and it keeps rising later until about January 4. One fact explains both: sunrise and sunset hang off solar noon, and solar noon is not pinned to 12:00 on the clock.

sunset=solar noon+½ daylight
sunrise=solar noon−½ daylight

Near a solstice, daylight barely changes from one day to the next. Solar noon keeps drifting later, so for a few weeks it wins the tug of war. Drag across the chart to watch the two terms trade places.

The year at a glance

Sunset Solar noon Sunrise Daylight
Sunrise
Solar noon
Sunset
Daylight

← earlierlater →
Solar noon drift Change in half the daylight ▮ Net change

What the globe is doing

Each half of the equation has a picture behind it. The globe shows the daylight term: how much of your latitude circle the sun lights. The orbit shows the solar noon term: how far Earth has to turn each day to face the sun again. Both follow the date you pick.

How sunlight lands on the globe ·

    Earth's orbit, seen from above

    The oval is exaggerated so you can see it. The North Pole leans the same way in space all year, which is why the seasons swap as Earth goes around. Earth moves fastest when it is closest to the sun, in early January, just after the December solstice.

    Why a solar day isn't 24 hours

      One day, seen from above the North Pole, with the angle exaggerated. After one full spin (23 h 56 min), Earth has moved along its orbit, so it must turn a little further before the sun is overhead again. That extra turn averages 3 min 56 s, which is where the 24-hour clock day comes from. When the extra turn runs long, as it does near both solstices and most of all in December, solar noon slips later on the clock.

      Zoom in on the two solstices

      Each panel covers 40 days either side of a solstice. The turnaround points are marked. Notice that the earliest events land before the solstice and the latest events land after it, and that the gap is wider in December.

      Why solar noon drifts

      Clocks assume every day is exactly 24 hours. A solar day, measured from one solar noon to the next, is not. When solar days run long, solar noon arrives a little later on the clock each day. Two things stretch and shrink the solar day.

      Earth's tilt

      The sun slides east along its yearly path by about one degree a day, so Earth has to turn a bit past a full rotation to bring it back overhead. Near the solstices that path runs parallel to the equator, and the sun sits far from the equator where the hour lines crowd together. Each degree of travel then counts as extra eastward motion, and the solar day stretches by up to about 20 seconds. Near the equinoxes the path cuts across at an angle and the day shortens.

      Earth's oval orbit

      Earth is closest to the sun around January 3 and moves fastest then, so the sun appears to shift further east each day and the solar day lengthens by about 8 seconds. Around early July, Earth is farthest away and slowest, and the effect reverses.

      Total: solar day minus 24 h From the tilt From the oval orbit

      Rebuild Earth's orbit

      Every chart on this page updates. Set the orbit to a perfect circle and December's lopsidedness shrinks to match June's. Set the tilt to zero and daylight stops changing, so sunrise and sunset simply follow solar noon.

      Is it the same in the southern hemisphere?

      The drift in solar noon is the same everywhere on Earth, because it comes from the orbit and the tilt, not from where you stand. What flips is daylight: December is summer in Sydney, so the December solstice brings the longest day there.

      The pattern still holds. Around either solstice, in either hemisphere, the earliest sunrise or sunset comes before the solstice and the latest comes after it. Sydney's earliest sunrise is in late November and its latest sunset in early January. In June, its earliest sunset comes before the solstice and its latest sunrise after it. And December is lopsided in both hemispheres, because that is when Earth is nearest the sun.

      Latitude changes the size of the offset. Near the equator, daylight hardly changes all year, so solar noon dominates and Quito's sunrise and sunset simply swing with it. Far north, daylight changes so quickly that Oslo's turnarounds sit only a few days from the solstice.