Times For Sunrise And Sunset In El Salvador

Average length of day in San Salvador

sunshine duration twilight phase

Sunrise and sunset in the most important cities of El Salvador

The cities are ordered by their geographic position from east to west, so in an approximate direction of the sun's course. Since the orbit around 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 El Salvador

City	Sunrise	Sunset	Hours of daylight	Solar noon
San Miguel	06:19 am	05:49 pm	11:31 h	12:04 pm
San Vicente	06:21 am	05:51 pm	11:30 h	12:06 pm
San Martín	06:22 am	05:52 pm	11:30 h	12:07 pm
Ilopango	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
Soyapango	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
Delgado	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
Apopa	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
Cuscatancingo	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
San Marcos	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
San Salvador	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
Mejicanos	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
Santa Tecla	06:23 am	05:53 pm	11:30 h	12:08 pm
Santa Ana	06:25 am	05:54 pm	11:29 h	12:09 pm
Sonsonate	06:25 am	05:55 pm	11:30 h	12:10 pm
Ahuachapán	06:26 am	05:55 pm	11:29 h	12:11 pm

Sunrise and sunset by month for San Salvador

Month	Sunrise	Sunset	Hours of daylight	Solar noon
January	06:22 am	05:49 pm	11:27 h	12:06 pm
February	06:18 am	06:03 pm	11:45 h	12:10 pm
March	06:02 am	06:08 pm	12:05 h	12:05 pm
April	05:42 am	06:11 pm	12:29 h	11:56 am
May	05:29 am	06:17 pm	12:48 h	11:53 am
June	05:28 am	06:26 pm	12:58 h	11:57 am
July	05:35 am	06:29 pm	12:54 h	12:02 pm
August	05:42 am	06:19 pm	12:37 h	12:01 pm
September	05:44 am	05:59 pm	12:15 h	11:51 am
October	05:46 am	05:38 pm	11:52 h	11:42 am
November	05:55 am	05:27 pm	11:32 h	11:41 am
December	06:11 am	05:32 pm	11:22 h	11:51 am

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, causing sunset to last for a different duration. San Salvador lies on the 14th degree of northern latitude and thus a good distance from the equator. While a sunset in the northern USA or central Europe can take almost an hour, in El Salvador, it lasts only an average of 25 minutes. In June, it's about 25 minutes in San Salvador, while in December it's 24 minutes.

The sun between the tropics

The capital San Salvador is located at 14 degrees north latitude and therefore also between the tropics. The sun swings back and forth between them over the course of the year. At the solstice on June 21, it is perpendicular above the northern tropic, and on December 21 above the southern tropic. If a country like El Salvador lies between these tropics, the sun crosses its latitude twice a year and then shines vertically from above. For San Salvador, this is on April 26th and August 16th. In between, the sun shines from the north, otherwise from the south.

Unlike in countries that are far away from the equator, the angle of the sun is quite large here. The sun is much higher in the sky at midday and therefore shines with a high intensity. It has the smallest angle, i.e. the smallest distance from the horizon, at the winter solstice on December 22nd. Then, even at midday, it is only 52.9 degrees above the southern horizon. For comparison: in New York, the sun only reaches an angle of 73 degrees at the height of summer.

Actual hours of sunshine

The period from sunrise to sunset is the astronomical length of the day. It is therefore independent of whether you can actually see the sun. In addition, significant deviations can be perceived depending on cloud cover or other visual obstructions. For the San Salvador region, we have shown the approximate sunshine duration in the graph here.

In June, the sun shines for around 6:00 hours a day. In contrast, the day is 12:58 hours long. This means that the visual obstruction is around 6:58 hours per day. In December, on the other hand, it is 1:52 of 11:22 hours.

International cities for comparison

City	Sunrise	Sunset	Hours of daylight	Solar noon
Berlin (Germany)	07:58 am	04:37 pm	8:39 h	12:18 pm
New York (USA)	07:12 am	05:02 pm	9:51 h	12:07 pm
Sydney (Australia)	06:06 am	08:07 pm	14:01 h	01:06 pm
Manila (Philippines)	06:24 am	05:51 pm	11:27 h	12:07 pm
Moscow (Russia)	08:36 am	04:46 pm	8:10 h	12:41 pm
Shanghai (China)	06:49 am	05:22 pm	10:32 h	12:05 pm
Helsinki (Finland)	08:51 am	04:12 pm	7:20 h	12:32 pm