Great light in Erie isn't luck — it's timing. This page calculates today's sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour for Erie's exact location, live, and works for any date you choose. On this side of the country, sunrise is the underrated window — the sun comes up over the Atlantic side and morning golden hour is quieter than the evening one.
The month-by-month table below is in this city's own local time. The live times above follow your device's timezone. Mountains, ridgelines and buildings can shorten the usable window — scout your horizon.
Local tip: Reflections double golden hour: water, glass buildings and wet pavement all pick up the sky's color in the hour around sunset.
Golden hour in Erie is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:48 PM in December to 9:00 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Erie's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Erie starts about 43 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 8:15 PM – 8:58 PM; in December it is 4:04 PM – 4:49 PM.
Sunset in Erie is earliest at 4:48 PM on December 3 and latest at 9:00 PM on June 22, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 43 minutes in midsummer and 45 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 45 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 37 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:46 AM | 5:13 PM | 4:30 PM – 5:13 PM | 43 min | 9h 28m |
| February | 7:16 AM | 5:53 PM | 5:14 PM – 5:53 PM | 39 min | 10h 37m |
| March | 7:32 AM | 7:26 PM | 6:49 PM – 7:26 PM | 37 min | 11h 55m |
| April | 6:39 AM | 8:01 PM | 7:24 PM – 8:01 PM | 37 min | 13h 22m |
| May | 5:59 AM | 8:34 PM | 7:54 PM – 8:34 PM | 40 min | 14h 35m |
| June | 5:43 AM | 8:58 PM | 8:15 PM – 8:58 PM | 43 min | 15h 14m |
| July | 5:57 AM | 8:54 PM | 8:13 PM – 8:54 PM | 41 min | 14h 57m |
| August | 6:28 AM | 8:20 PM | 7:42 PM – 8:20 PM | 38 min | 13h 53m |
| September | 7:00 AM | 7:29 PM | 6:52 PM – 7:29 PM | 37 min | 12h 29m |
| October | 7:33 AM | 6:38 PM | 6:00 PM – 6:38 PM | 38 min | 11h 05m |
| November | 7:10 AM | 4:58 PM | 4:16 PM – 4:58 PM | 42 min | 9h 48m |
| December | 7:41 AM | 4:49 PM | 4:04 PM – 4:49 PM | 45 min | 9h 07m |
Golden hour is the stretch just after sunrise and just before sunset, when the low sun turns hard daylight into soft, warm, directional light — the most flattering natural light for portraits, real estate, product and landscape photography. Blue hour follows sunset (and precedes sunrise): a short window of deep, even blue that's ideal for twilight real estate shots and skylines. Both windows change with latitude and season, which is why this page computes them live instead of guessing.
Kanyon Studio is a San Diego photography and video studio — golden hour is our home field. Brand shoots, products, real estate and portraits, planned around exactly this light.
