US Trends

when will the sun start rising earlier

The sun is already starting to rise earlier now; in most of the Northern Hemisphere, sunrise gets earlier from early January through mid‑June, with the quickest change from about February to early April.

When will the sun start rising earlier?

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere (US, Canada, UK, Europe, etc.):

  • Around the winter solstice (around December 21), sunrise is close to its latest time.
  • From late December into January , the sunrise time begins to shift earlier , even though sunset times and total daylight also change.
  • From early February to early May , daylight increases rapidly—over 2 minutes per day in some mid‑latitude regions, meaning sunrise is clearly earlier each week.
  • This trend continues until around the summer solstice (around June 20–21) , when sunrise reaches its earliest time and then slowly starts getting later again.

So if you’re asking “when will the sun start rising earlier?” and it’s late winter or early spring, the answer is: it’s already happening and will keep doing so every few days until mid‑June.

Why this happens (in plain language)

  • Earth’s tilt and its orbit around the sun mean different parts of the planet get different amounts of light throughout the year.
  • Around the spring equinox (for 2026 this is March 20 at 10:46 a.m. EDT), day and night are roughly equal, but sunrise has already been getting earlier for weeks by then.
  • After the equinox, days are longer than nights , and sunrise keeps shifting earlier while sunset moves later, until we reach peak daylight near the summer solstice.

One way to picture it: from early February through early April, you’re “gaining” a couple minutes of light almost every day, which shows up as both earlier sunrises and later sunsets.

How to check the exact date for your location

Because it depends on your exact latitude, longitude, and time zone , the precise day sunrise switches from “later” to “earlier” differs by city.

You can:

  1. Go to an online sunrise/sunset calculator (such as major time/date services or national weather/solar calculators). These tools let you enter your city and see sunrise and sunset times for any date.
  1. Look at a monthly table for your city and scroll around the winter solstice. You’ll see sunrise times stop getting later and then begin to tick earlier, minute by minute.
  1. For a quick example, some US locations show sunrise getting earlier from early January onward, with especially noticeable changes through March and April.

Mini “forum-style” take

“It feels like it’s still dark forever in the mornings. When does it finally flip?”

  • Technically, it already flips not long after the darkest days in late December for many places, but we feel it more from February onward because the change is faster and evenings are brighter too.
  • By the time you reach late March and into April, most people really notice, because commutes and early walks suddenly happen in daylight again.

TL;DR: In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun starts rising earlier soon after late December , and from February to early April the change is fastest, continuing toward earlier and earlier sunrises until around June 20–21.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.