HM Nautical Almanac Office: Miscellanea
Sunrise/set times for the United Kingdom - July
The map below shows isochrones or lines linking places with the same times of sunrise (green lines) and sunset (red lines) for the United Kingdom for mid-July. These lines show the position of the terminator, the boundary between the illuminated and dark areas of the Earth, as it sweeps across the face of the globe. At this time of the year the terminator for sunrise runs north west to south east and that for sunset runs north east to south west. The Shetland Isles see the earliest sunrise and the Isles of Scilly have the latest sunrise. The earliest sunset takes place in south-east Kent and the latest sunset takes place on the Isle of Lewis. The time system used in the map is British Summer Time (BST) which can be regarded as UTC plus one hour for the purposes of this exercise. For example, we can see that sunrise in London occurs at 05:00 BST and sunset in Londonderry occurs at 22:00 BST.
If the United Kingdom elected to move to Central European Summer time (CEST), two hours in advance of UTC for the Spring and Summer months, this would mean darker mornings and lighter evenings. For example, sunrise in London would take place at 06:00 CEST and sunset would take place at 22:12 CEST. In Glasgow, sunrise would take place 05:52 CEST and sunset at 22:53 CEST. In the case of Northern Ireland, sunrise times would occur between 06:00 CEST and 06:15 CEST. Stornoway would see the Sun rise at 05:43 CEST and set at 23:18 CEST.
| Sunrise/set times for mid-July | |||||
| United Kingdom Location | BST | CEST | |||
| Sunrise | Sunset | Sunrise | Sunset | ||
| Lerwick | 04:06 | 22:14 | 05:06 | 23:14 | |
| Kirkwall | 04:24 | 22:11 | 05:24 | 23:11 | |
| Stornoway | 04:43 | 22:18 | 05:43 | 23:18 | |
| Inverness | 04:41 | 22:04 | 05:41 | 23:04 | |
| Aberdeen | 04:34 | 21:53 | 05:34 | 22:53 | |
| Edinburgh | 04:47 | 21:49 | 05:47 | 22:49 | |
| Glasgow | 04:52 | 21:53 | 05:52 | 22:53 | |
| Londonderry | 05:10 | 22:00 | 06:10 | 23:00 | |
| Newcastle | 04:47 | 21:37 | 05:47 | 22:37 | |
| Carlisle | 04:53 | 21:41 | 05:53 | 22:41 | |
| Belfast | 05:07 | 21:52 | 06:07 | 22:52 | |
| Douglas IoM | 05:04 | 21:43 | 06:04 | 22:43 | |
| Leeds | 04:54 | 21:30 | 05:54 | 22:30 | |
| Hull | 04:49 | 21:24 | 05:49 | 22:24 | |
| Manchester | 04:58 | 21:31 | 05:58 | 22:31 | |
| Liverpool | 05:01 | 21:33 | 06:01 | 22:33 | |
| Leicester | 04:58 | 21:21 | 05:58 | 22:21 | |
| Norwich | 04:49 | 21:12 | 05:49 | 22:12 | |
| Birmingham | 05:02 | 21:24 | 06:02 | 22:24 | |
| Aberystwyth | 05:11 | 21:32 | 06:11 | 22:32 | |
| Ipswich | 04:52 | 21:09 | 05:52 | 22:09 | |
| Cardiff | 05:13 | 21:24 | 06:13 | 22:24 | |
| London | 05:00 | 21:12 | 06:00 | 22:12 | |
| Dover | 04:56 | 21:04 | 05:56 | 22:04 | |
| Southampton | 05:08 | 21:14 | 06:08 | 22:14 | |
| Exeter | 05:18 | 21:22 | 06:18 | 22:22 | |
| Penzance | 05:29 | 21:27 | 06:29 | 22:27 | |
| St. Helier | 05:19 | 21:09 | 06:19 | 22:09 | |
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