Sunrise & Sunset in San Diego

San Diego sits at 32.72°N latitude, the southernmost major city on the US West Coast, and its sun cycle is the mildest of any large American coastal city: day length runs from 9h 59m at the December solstice to 14h 18m in June — a swing of only about 4 hours 20 minutes. Winter sunrises never come later than about 6:48 AM, and summer sunsets reach 8:00 PM, so the city never faces the very dark mornings or the extremely long evenings of northern latitudes.

The city's coastline faces almost due west across the Pacific, so sunset here is an ocean event all year. In late November and early December the sun sets as early as 4:44 PM, painting the sky over the water around dinner time, while in June it holds off until 8:00 PM. A coastal marine layer can sit on the horizon in late spring — locals call it May Gray and June Gloom — but when it thins at sundown it often turns the whole western sky pink and orange.