Sunrise and sunset in Western Sahara

Average length of daylight in El Aaiún

      sunshine duration       twilight phase

Sunrise and sunset in the most important cities of Western Sahara

The cities are ordered by their geographic position from east to west, so in an approximate direction of the sun course. Since the orbit of the sun is elliptical, sunrise or sunset never happen on a whole longitude at the same time. All data given for January 23rd., localtime in Western Sahara

Sunrise and sunset by month (El Aaiún)

Duration of the sunset

The distance from the equator and the path of the sun determines not only the time of sunrise and sunset. The farther a country is from the equator, the more oblique the sun's path is to the horizon. And this causes a different duration that a sunset takes. El Aaiún lies on the 27th degree of northern latitude and is therefore quite far away from the equator. While a sunset near the equator only lasts about 20 minutes, in Western Sahara this period averages 26 minutes. Western Sahara is so close to the equator that there is no noticeable difference even between June and December.

International cities for comparison