Times For Sunrise And Sunset In Uganda

Average length of day in Kampala

sunshine duration twilight phase

Sunrise and sunset in the most important cities of Uganda

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 December 27th., localtime in Uganda

City	Sunrise	Sunset	Hours of daylight	Solar noon
Mbale	06:41 am	06:47 pm	12:06 h	12:44 pm
Soroti	06:44 am	06:48 pm	12:04 h	12:46 pm
Jinja	06:44 am	06:52 pm	12:08 h	12:48 pm
Lira	06:48 am	06:50 pm	12:02 h	12:49 pm
Mukono	06:45 am	06:54 pm	12:08 h	12:50 pm
Kampala	06:46 am	06:55 pm	12:09 h	12:50 pm
Entebbe	06:46 am	06:56 pm	12:09 h	12:51 pm
Gulu	06:51 am	06:51 pm	12:00 h	12:51 pm
Masaka	06:48 am	06:59 pm	12:11 h	12:54 pm
Hoima	06:53 am	06:58 pm	12:05 h	12:55 pm
Arua	06:57 am	06:57 pm	11:59 h	12:57 pm
Mbarara	06:52 am	07:04 pm	12:12 h	12:58 pm
Bwizibwera	06:52 am	07:04 pm	12:12 h	12:58 pm
Fort Portal	06:56 am	07:03 pm	12:07 h	01:00 pm
Kasese	06:56 am	07:05 pm	12:09 h	01:00 pm

Sunrise and sunset by month for Kampala

Month	Sunrise	Sunset	Hours of daylight	Solar noon
January	06:54 am	07:03 pm	12:08 h	12:59 pm
February	06:59 am	07:07 pm	12:08 h	01:03 pm
March	06:54 am	07:02 pm	12:09 h	12:58 pm
April	06:44 am	06:54 pm	12:09 h	12:49 pm
May	06:40 am	06:51 pm	12:10 h	12:46 pm
June	06:44 am	06:55 pm	12:11 h	12:50 pm
July	06:50 am	07:00 pm	12:10 h	12:55 pm
August	06:49 am	06:58 pm	12:10 h	12:54 pm
September	06:40 am	06:49 pm	12:09 h	12:44 pm
October	06:31 am	06:39 pm	12:09 h	12:35 pm
November	06:30 am	06:38 pm	12:08 h	12:34 pm
December	06:40 am	06:49 pm	12:09 h	12:44 pm

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. Kampala lies on the 0th degree of northern latitude and thus very close to the equator. While a sunset in the northern USA or central Europe can take almost an hour, in Uganda, it lasts only an average of 24 minutes. Uganda is so close to the equator that there is no noticeable difference even between June and December.

The sun between the tropics

The capital Kampala lies almost exactly on the equator 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 Uganda lies between these tropics, the sun crosses its latitude twice a year and then shines vertically from above. For Kampala, this is on March 21st and September 22nd. In Arua, around 350 km away, it is March 28th and September 15th.

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 66.2 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 Kampala resp. Central Region region, we have shown the approximate sunshine duration in the graph here.

In June, the sun shines for around 6:12 hours a day. In contrast, the day is 12:11 hours long. This means that the visual obstruction is around 5:59 hours per day. In December, on the other hand, it is 5:27 of 12:09 hours.

International cities for comparison

City	Sunrise	Sunset	Hours of daylight	Solar noon
Berlin (Germany)	08:14 am	04:00 pm	7:45 h	12:07 pm
New York (USA)	07:17 am	04:36 pm	9:19 h	11:56 am
Sydney (Australia)	05:42 am	08:09 pm	14:27 h	12:56 pm
Manila (Philippines)	06:17 am	05:36 pm	11:18 h	11:57 am
Moscow (Russia)	08:56 am	04:04 pm	7:08 h	12:30 pm
Shanghai (China)	06:49 am	05:00 pm	10:10 h	11:55 am
Helsinki (Finland)	09:22 am	03:20 pm	5:59 h	12:21 pm