Sunsets before 5 p.m. are about to return as daylight saving time ends
New York City, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle will all see sunset before 5 p.m. on Nov. 1 after clocks fall back for the end of daylight saving time.
It’s the earliest it could possibly be, and will it ever end? AccuWeather’s Geoff Cornish has more on the possibility of a change.
Sunset will arrive before 5 p.m. across many parts of the United States on Sunday, Nov. 1, bringing a sudden change to the evening hours as clocks "fall back" for the end of daylight saving time.
The time change will instantly shift sunrises and sunsets to an hour earlier on the clock, making it feel like darkness is arriving much sooner than the day before. The end of daylight saving time falls on the earliest possible date in 2026: Nov. 1.
How early will sunsets be after daylight saving time ends?
The sun will dip below the horizon before 5 p.m. in New York City, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Seattle on the first night of November.
In northern Maine, daylight will fade even sooner. Sunset in Caribou is expected at 4:16 p.m., among the earliest sunset times in the contiguous United States.
Farther south, residents will have a little more daylight in the evening. Sunset will arrive at 5:34 p.m. in Houston and 5:39 p.m. in Miami.
Most of the United States will experience the abrupt shift, but not everywhere. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time, so residents there will not see the same sudden change. The Navajo Nation in Arizona is an exception and does observe the time change.
Clocks of the art installation ‘Zeitfeld’ (time field) by German artist Klaus Rinke are seen in Duesseldorf, western Germany, on October 23, 2026. (Photo by Ina FASSBENDER / AFP via Getty Images)
Days keep getting shorter
Turning back the clocks does not change the actual length of a day. However, November will bring another noticeable change as days continue to get shorter and nights grow longer.
The Northern Hemisphere has been losing daylight since the June solstice, a trend that will continue until the winter solstice in December.
Across parts of the northern United States, the amount of daylight will shrink by more than an hour between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30. Seattle, for example, will lose more than 70 minutes of daylight during that stretch.
The change will be less dramatic farther south, with many communities along the Gulf Coast losing around 30 minutes of daylight throughout November.
The shortening days will continue into December, with the winter solstice on Dec. 21 marking the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
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