CHICAGO, Ill. — Summer’s longest evenings are quietly winding down. Chicago has already logged its final sunset at 8 p.m. or later, and it won’t happen again until 2027. New York and Denver are right behind, joining a growing list of major U.S. cities watching their daylight windows shrink night by night as the calendar pushes toward fall.
Boston was first to say goodbye, losing its last 8 p.m.-or-later sunset back on August 4. Chicago followed on August 8, with New York on August 10 and Denver on August 11. Philadelphia and San Francisco aren’t far behind, with their last late sunsets landing August 12 and August 16.
Cities farther south and west get to hang onto the long evenings a little longer. Houston’s last 8 p.m. sunset falls on August 17, the same day as Washington, D.C., while Raleigh and Orlando stretch into mid-to-late August at August 18 and August 19. The real holdouts are Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Seattle, all hanging onto 8 p.m. sunsets until August 26, with Salt Lake City closing out the list on August 31, the latest date of any city tracked.
The shift comes down to simple geography and the calendar. As the Northern Hemisphere moves away from the summer solstice, days shorten a little more each day, with the rate of change accelerating through August and into September. Cities farther north, like Minneapolis and Seattle, actually hold onto later sunsets longer into August than some cities farther south, a quirk tied to latitude and how sunset timing shifts unevenly across the country as the season turns.
For anyone who’s been soaking up long summer evenings, the changeover is a reminder that fall is approaching, even while daytime temperatures across much of the country remain firmly in summer territory. Exact sunset times vary slightly depending on precise location within each metro area, but the trend is the same everywhere: after this stretch of late-August dates, 8 p.m. sunsets won’t return until 2027.
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