This is how long the sun shines in the United Arab Emirates! Up to 13:40 hours of daylight a day. (2024)

Average length of day in Abu Dhabi

Sunrise and sunset in the most important cities of the United Arab Emirates

The cities are ordered by their geographic position from east to west, so in an approximate direction of the sun's course. Since the orbit around the sun is elliptical, sunrise or sunset never happen on a whole longitude at the same time. All data given for April 4th., localtime in the United Arab Emirates

Sunrise and sunset by month for Abu Dhabi

Duration of the sunset

The distance from the equator and the path of the sun determines not only the time of sunrise and sunset. The farther a country is from the equator, the more oblique the sun's path is to the horizon, causing sunset to last for a different duration. Abu Dhabi lies on the 24th degree of northern latitude and is therefore quite far away from the equator. While a sunset near the equator lasts only about 20 minutes, in the United Arab Emirates, this period averages 27 minutes. In June, it's about 28 minutes in Abu Dhabi, while in December it's 26 minutes.

The sun always shines from the south

The capital Abu Dhabi is located at 24 degrees north latitude and therefore also north of the Tropic. While the sun swings back and forth between the northern and southern tropics throughout the year, it shines on Abu Dhabi from the south, but is never perpendicular to it. In December, the sun is so far away that even at midday it can only be seen 42 degrees above the horizon. (0 degrees is at the height of the horizon, 90 degrees would be a position directly above Abu Dhabi.) It reaches its highest point at its zenith, i.e. at midday on June 21st. Then the sun shines down at an angle of 89.0 degrees.

Actual hours of sunshine

The period from sunrise to sunset is the astronomical length of the day. It is therefore independent of whether you can actually see the sun. In addition, significant deviations can be perceived depending on cloud cover or other visual obstructions. For the Abu Dhabi region, we have shown the approximate sunshine duration in the graph here.

International cities for comparison