This winter has been a pretty intense one here in London. At first, it felt like we’d be in for a relatively mild winter, with temperatures still hovering around the mid-teens near the end of 2025. But as the year drew to a close and through January, the temperatures plummeted. These freezing temperatures, combined with snow warnings, plenty of rain, and early sunsets, made it seem like winter would never leave the city. Fortunately, with the first 5pm sunset of the year coming this weekend, it looks like we’re finally leaving the cold season behind.
This weekend, on Saturday, February 7, the sun will set at 5pm for the first time this year. Slowly – ever so slowly – the days are getting longer. Soon the sun will still be shining when we leave work, and it will even keep us company for after-work drinks and long, lazy weekend evenings at the pub.
Spring is slowly making its way to the city, which means summer is mere months away at this point. (Okay, so maybe I’m being a bit dramatic, but I simply can’t wait for the summer season to return!)
5pm sunsets in 2026
The sun will set at 5pm on February 7. Following this, the sun will keep setting later and later, until the summer solstice on June 21. This will mark the turning point, when the days will slowly start getting shorter again as we slide into autumn and winter.
In October, after the clocks change, the sun will set at 5:48pm on October 24, and then at 4:46pm on October 25.
Following this weekend’s 5pm sunset, here are a few more sunset times to keep an eye out for, as the days get longer and longer (and hopefully much warmer, too!):
- March 13: the first post-6pm sunset of 2026
- March 18: the first day with more sunshine than nighttime (12 hours and 2 minutes of sunshine)
- April 17: the first 8pm sunset of 2026
- May 26: the first post-9pm sunset of 2026 (days last for over 16 hours)