Great light in Riverside isn't luck — it's timing. This page calculates today's sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour for Riverside's exact location, live, and works for any date you choose. With a west-facing coastline nearby, evenings are the show — the sun drops toward the Pacific and the last hour of light runs warm and long.
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: Don't pack up at sunset — blue hour starts right after, and the 20 minutes of deep-blue sky with city lights on is the most underrated window of the day.
In Riverside, sunset ranges from 4:40 PM in November to 8:04 PM in June. Evening golden hour lasts about 37 minutes at the summer solstice and 39 minutes at the winter solstice. Times below are local to Riverside (America/Los_Angeles).
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6:54 AM | 5:03 PM | 4:26 PM – 5:03 PM | 37 min | 10h 09m |
| February | 6:33 AM | 5:33 PM | 4:59 PM – 5:33 PM | 34 min | 11h 00m |
| March | 6:59 AM | 6:57 PM | 6:24 PM – 6:57 PM | 33 min | 11h 58m |
| April | 6:18 AM | 7:21 PM | 6:47 PM – 7:21 PM | 34 min | 13h 03m |
| May | 5:48 AM | 7:44 PM | 7:08 PM – 7:44 PM | 36 min | 13h 56m |
| June | 5:38 AM | 8:02 PM | 7:25 PM – 8:02 PM | 37 min | 14h 24m |
| July | 5:49 AM | 8:01 PM | 7:25 PM – 8:01 PM | 36 min | 14h 12m |
| August | 6:11 AM | 7:36 PM | 7:02 PM – 7:36 PM | 34 min | 13h 25m |
| September | 6:32 AM | 6:55 PM | 6:22 PM – 6:55 PM | 33 min | 12h 23m |
| October | 6:54 AM | 6:15 PM | 5:41 PM – 6:15 PM | 34 min | 11h 21m |
| November | 6:22 AM | 4:45 PM | 4:09 PM – 4:45 PM | 36 min | 10h 24m |
| December | 6:47 AM | 4:42 PM | 4:03 PM – 4:42 PM | 39 min | 9h 54m |
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.
