Seattle Sunset Times

The Olympic Mountains sit 60 miles west of Seattle across Puget Sound, and their snowcapped peaks intercept the sun roughly 20 minutes before it would meet the horizon line at sea level. This creates a double-stage sunset: the initial descent behind the ridgeline, followed by a prolonged alpenglow as indirect light scatters through the atmosphere and illuminates the underside of clouds drifting eastward over the city. The phenomenon is most visible from the Elliott Bay waterfront, where unobstructed sightlines extend across the water without intervening landmass. Sunset schedules in Seattle follow the same astronomical patterns as any location near 47 degrees north latitude, but local geography compresses the visual event. Between the summer solstice in late June and the winter solstice in late December, the sunset time shifts by nearly five hours. August evenings place the sun low on the western horizon around 8:15 PM, with usable twilight extending past 9:00 PM. By mid-January the sun drops behind the mountains before 4:45 PM, and civil twilight ends by 5:15 PM. The seasonal difference determines not only when to arrive but how long the color lasts once the sun makes contact with the peaks. Cloud cover matters more than season for the quality of light. A clear sky produces a clean gradient from blue to orange, but mid-level clouds at 10,000 to 15,000 feet catch the refracted red wavelengths and hold them for 15 to 30 minutes after the sun disappears. Fog banks sitting on the water diffuse the light and flatten contrast. Weather patterns in the Pacific Northwest cycle through these conditions within the same week, and no forecast reliably predicts the exact configuration two hours in advance. The waterfront remains open every day of the year, so visitors planning around sunset times can adjust their schedule the morning of based on current cloud position rather than committing days ahead. The best arrival window accounts for both the astronomical sunset and the preceding golden hour, when side-lit mountains show topographic detail before transitioning to silhouette. Arriving 60 to 90 minutes before the published sunset time positions you for the full sequence rather than only the final descent. Seasonal sunset information for Elliott Bay aligns with Seattle's broader solar schedule, available through standard almanac sources and updated daily to reflect the six-minute weekly shift during spring and autumn.