At a Glance
- The earliest sunsets of the year occur in late November and early December.
- In the Lower 48 states, the earliest sunsets happen before 4 p.m.
- The latest sunrises of the winter occur after the winter solstice.
Although the winter solstice doesn't occur until Dec. 21 at 5:23 p.m. EST, the earliest sunsets of the year are either occurring now or have happened within the past couple of weeks. The days will still get shorter until the solstice, however, because we'll continue to lose daylight with later sunrises each morning.
But how early does the sun set this time of year? The map above, courtesy of climatologist Dr. Brian Brettschneider of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, answers that question.
At the eastern edge of the Eastern time zone in Caribou, Maine, the sun dips below the horizon at 3:43 p.m. from Dec. 8 to 12. It's slightly better in Boston, where the sun sets at 4:12 p.m. from Dec. 3 to 14 before the evening daylight starts to increase again.
The earliest sunsets are at 4:28 p.m. in New York City from Dec. 3 to 12, with sunset occurring at 4:35 p.m. in Philadelphia from Dec. 4 to 11. In Washington D.C., the sun goes down at 4:46 p.m. from Dec. 2 to 12.
On the West Coast, Seattle's sunset takes place at 4:19 p.m. from Dec. 2 to 19, while Los Angeles begins its decent into darkness at 4:44 p.m. from Nov. 28 to Dec. 10.
Southern states experience a later sunset than northern ones near the winter solstice due to the tilt of the Earth on its axis and its elliptical (not circular) orbit around the sun. In the winter, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. The opposite is true in the summer.
For example, the earliest sunset in Atlanta is at 5:29 p.m. from Nov. 28 to Dec. 10 while the sun goes down at 5:21 p.m. in Dallas from Nov. 26 to Dec. 11. In Key West, Florida, 5:38 p.m. is the earliest the sun sets, occurring from Nov. 23 to Dec. 5.
Areas north of the Arctic Circle – within 23.5 degrees of the North Pole – experience more than two months when the sun never ascends above the horizon. This includes America's northernmost town, Utqiaġvik (formerly known as Barrow), Alaska.
(MORE: America's Northernmost Town in the Midst of 65 Days of Darkness)
Fairbanks, Alaska, just south of the Arctic Circle, still sees a sunrise and sunset this time of year. On the Dec. 21 winter solstice, sunset is as early as 2:41 p.m. AKST, not even 4 hours after sunrise at 10:58 a.m. AKST.
The map shown in the tweet below illustrates the date of the earliest sunset, and you can see that areas farther south experience their earliest sunset before locations to the north.
The southern parts of Florida and Texas see the earliest sunset in late November, but areas near the Canadian border keep losing daylight in the evening until the second week of December.
The latest sunrises of the winter – which, in many cases, are not the latest sunrises of the entire year since those occur before the end of daylight saving time in early November – don't take place until after the winter solstice in late December or early January.
The southern tier of the United States has to wait more than 33 days after the earliest sunset for the latest sunrise of the winter to arrive. The northern states see the latest winter sunrise three to four weeks after the earliest sunset.
The reason for the large gap between the earliest sunset and latest sunrise can be explained using the equation of time, which you can read about here.
