The Sun appears to rise roughly in the east everywhere on Earth, but its exact point on the horizon shifts with the seasons and your location.

Short, direct answer

  • On most days, you can say: “The sunrise is in the east.”
  • Around the March and September equinoxes, the Sun rises almost exactly due east for all non-polar locations.
  • In the Northern Hemisphere:
    • From spring to autumn, sunrise is in the northeast part of the horizon.
* From autumn to spring, sunrise shifts to the **southeast**.
  • In the Southern Hemisphere, the pattern is flipped (summer sunrises in the southeast, winter in the northeast).

Why it rises there

  • Earth spins from west to east, so the Sun seems to come up in the east and go down in the west.
  • Earth’s axis is tilted, which makes the sunrise point slide northward or southward along the eastern horizon over the year.

A quick mental picture

Imagine facing east at the ocean:

  • At the equinoxes, the Sun comes up straight ahead.
  • In your (Northern Hemisphere) summer, it pops up noticeably to your left (northeast).
  • In winter, it pops up to your right (southeast).

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