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We regret to inform you that the annual betrayal has begun: We’re about to lose our 8pm sunsets.
The sun will set at 8:09pm in NYC today, August 3, then creep earlier by a minute or two each evening. By Sunday, August 9, sunset arrives at 8:01pm. Monday, August 10, is our final technically-still-an-8pm sunset of 2026, at exactly 8pm. By next Tuesday, it drops to 7:59pm.
In other words: This is your last full week of leaving work, meeting friends for a drink, eating dinner outside, and generally pretending the evening is infinite before darkness begins its relentless march toward 4:30pm. Enjoy it responsibly.
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The change is already happening pretty quickly: today, New York gets about 14 hours and 14 minutes of daylight, with sunrise at 5:54 am and sunset at 8:09pm. By August 31, sunrise won't happen until 6:22am, while sunset will arrive at 7:29pm, leaving the city with just over 13 hours of daylight.
If you're wondering why we get those glorious late sunsets in the first place, you can thank daylight saving time. During the months when most of the country observes DST, our clocks are shifted forward an hour, effectively moving an hour of daylight from the morning into the evening. Under permanent standard time, the sun would rise and set an hour earlier during summer.
That possibility isn't entirely hypothetical. Congress has been debating competing proposals over what America should do with its clocks, including legislation supporting permanent daylight saving time and a bipartisan proposal that would instead establish permanent standard time. (Under the latter, many American cities wouldn't see an 8pm sunset at all during summer.)
For now, though, our precious late-sunset season remains intact—just not for much longer. So, consider this your official notice to squeeze in a rooftop drink, picnic, waterfront stroll or prolonged outdoor dinner sometime this week.