Daylight Hours › Sunrise Today September 11, 2026 · London Sunrise in London today is at 06:29. Day length is 12h 57m. See below for sunset, solar noon, dawn and dusk — all times calculated astronomically for London's coordinates and updated daily. Tomorrow · September 12, 2026 Sunrise is the moment when the upper edge of the sun first appears above the horizon. The time of sunrise changes every day of the year, and it varies significantly depending on where you are in the world. At mid-latitudes, the difference between the earliest and latest sunrise of the year can be three or more hours. Use the tool on the homepage to see the exact sunrise time for your location today. Why does sunrise time change? Sunrise shifts throughout the year for the same reason we have seasons: Earth orbits the sun on a tilted axis (23.4°). As the planet travels around the sun, different latitudes are tilted toward or away from the sun, changing both the angle of sunlight and the length of the day. Near the summer solstice , sunrise comes very early; near the winter solstice , it arrives late. At the equinoxes in March and September, sunrise is closest to 06:00 local time everywhere on Earth. Your longitude within your timezone also plays a role. The sun rises earlier in the eastern part of a timezone than the western part — up to an hour earlier in some cases — even though both share the same clock time. Sunrise times through the year — London (51°N) * Clocks spring forward one hour at end of March (BST begins). ** Clocks fall back one hour at end of October (GMT resumes). The midnight sun and polar night At extreme latitudes, sunrise becomes something more dramatic. Above the Arctic Circle (66.5°N), there are days in summer when the sun never sets — so sunrise doesn't happen at all because the sun is always up. In Tromsø, Norway (70°N), the midnight sun lasts from late May to late July. Conversely, in winter the sun never rises above the horizon — polar night — for roughly two months around the winter solstice. The opposite is true in the Antarctic Circle : midnight sun in December, polar night in June. Why does sunrise appear slightly earlier than expected? Sunrise occurs a few minutes earlier than pure geometry would suggest, because Earth's atmosphere acts as a lens. As sunlight travels through the atmosphere at a low angle, it bends toward Earth's surface — a phenomenon called atmospheric refraction . This bends the sun's image over the horizon before the sun has geometrically risen. The effect adds roughly 2–4 minutes of extra daylight at each end of the day. Refraction is stronger in cold, dense air and weaker in warm, humid conditions, so the exact amount varies. Sunrise and your body Natural light at sunrise is one of the strongest signals your body uses to set its internal clock. Morning sunlight — even through clouds — suppresses melatonin and triggers cortisol, helping you feel alert. This is why people living at very high latitudes often struggle with sleep and mood in winter, when sunrise may come at 9 or 10 in the morning or not at all. Getting outside early, or using a light therapy lamp that mimics sunrise, can help maintain a healthy rhythm year-round.

Check the exact sunrise time for your location on the homepage — and explore how it changes across the year using the day-length chart. Why morning light matters more than evening light Daylight is not interchangeable across the day. The human circadian system is anchored most strongly by light in the first hours after waking, and the effect is not subtle — morning light advances the body clock, evening light delays it. This is why late winter sunrises are harder than late winter sunsets. Through January the day is measurably lengthening, but nearly all the early gain arrives at the evening end while sunrise stays stubbornly late; the morning signal does not properly return until March. It is a plausible explanation for why February can feel worse than December despite being objectively brighter, and why light therapy for seasonal low mood is administered in the morning rather than whenever is convenient. The intensity involved is larger than people assume. A well-lit room is perhaps 300–500 lux; an overcast morning outdoors is several thousand, and a clear one tens of thousands. Ten minutes outside shortly after sunrise delivers a stronger signal than a whole day indoors by a window. Where the sun comes up The sunrise point moves along the horizon through the year exactly as the sunset point does, mirrored. Due east only at the equinoxes ; well north of east through the summer; well south of east through the winter. In London the bearing runs from roughly 50° in June to about 130° in December. Prehistoric monuments across northern Europe are built around this fact, and it is worth appreciating how precise the observation had to be. Aligning a structure on the midsummer sunrise means identifying the extreme of the swing — the point at which the daily movement along the horizon stops and reverses — which requires watching consistently for years. The solstice , the standstill, is exactly what those alignments mark. Dawn comes long before sunrise The sky starts to lighten well before the sun appears, and at northern latitudes the head start is substantial. Civil dawn — the point at which there is enough light to see outdoors without a lamp — arrives around 33 to 38 minutes before sunrise in London in midwinter, and 45 minutes or more at midsummer. Astronomical dawn, the first faint lightening of the sky, can precede sunrise by two hours or more in summer. So the honest answer to "how much usable light do I get" is not the day length at all. It is the day length plus the twilight at both ends, which at British and Danish latitudes adds well over an hour in summer. Our page on when it gets dark sets out the thresholds, and what day length is covers how the whole pattern shifts across the year. Note too that the earliest sunrise of the year does not fall on the longest day — it comes several days before it, displaced by the equation of time. See when it is lightest for why. Frequently asked questions about sunrise What time is sunrise today? Sunrise depends on where you are. In London it falls as early as about 04:43 in mid-June and as late as about 08:07 in early January. Use the calculator on the front page for the exact time at your location today. When is the earliest sunrise of the year? In mid-June, a few days before the summer solstice rather than on it. In London the earliest sunrise falls around 17 June at about 04:43, while the longest day is 21 June. The offset comes from the equation of time, which shifts solar noon slightly from day to day. Why is sunrise not exactly opposite sunset? Because the atmosphere bends light over the horizon and because sunrise is measured from the moment the sun's upper edge appears. Both effects make the sun visible a few minutes before it has geometrically risen, so the day runs slightly longer than a straight calculation suggests.