Sunrise Sunset Times

[Yeshia]

Do any of the API endpoints provide the Sunset and Sunrise time for that day?

Thanks

[netbymatt]

No they don't. I was looking for this some time ago when I was putting together my app. I was working in Javascript so I used https://github.com/mourner/suncalc to get that data. It's a fairly easy integration since you're either searching by Lat/Lon, or can get the Lat/Lon from one of the API calls and then pass that to the suncalc library to get sunrise and sunset.

[StephenClouse]

Correct, it's not something we currently expose. We do actually calculate it internally, because it's needed for some metadata bits on the forecast and observation endpoints, but we don't output the actual times anywhere.

I'm honestly not really sure where it would fit. Maybe a whole new endpoint. Suggestions welcome.

[Yeshia]

Perhaps in the daily forecast endpoint? Seems like it might make sense there.

[StephenClouse]

Maybe, but the forecast isn't actually daily, it's semi-daily (12-hour periods, 6-6), and sunrise/sunset don't always fit neatly into those boxes, especially as we get around the solstices.

And don't even get me started on Alaska.

Still, it's something we'll try to think about.

[Shom770]

The sunrise/sunset could be used for isDaytime in hourly forecasts, because it relies on UTC

[katilley]

Has this been turned into a formal feature request? I'd like to see this additional functionality as well. Where ever it goes it would be nice to have the sunrise/sunset for the days available in the forecast.

[TlonUqbar]

Hi there,

So I take it that this has not been added/exposed yet?

I think this could easily be included in the /gridpoints/{wfo}/{x},{y}/ endpoint.

It already includes all kinds of other info/data.

It includes an updateTime and a validTimes field, so why not just add a sunData field with, the sunrise and sunset times and a validDate, since the validTimes includes 7 days then it could be added for 7 days as well, but I have a feeling that most people would only be interested in the first value.

{
  "properties": {
    "validTimes": "2025-02-01T14:00:00+00:00/P7DT11H",
    "sunData": {
      "0": { 
        "sunrise": "2025-02-01T06:46:00",
        "sunset": "2025-02-01T17:22:00",
        "validDate": "2025-02-01"
      },
      "1": { 
        "sunrise": "2025-02-01T06:50:00",
        "sunset": "2025-02-01T17:26:00",
        "validDate": "2025-02-02"
      }
    }
  }
}

I think this is the best place for it since there is all sorts of other data there, and this would be similar to how all the other data is exposed. Just an idea.

UPDATE: I was just thinking that astronomicalData would be a better key and it could also include other data like moonrise and moonset.

{
  "properties": {
    "validTimes": "2025-02-01T14:00:00+00:00/P7DT11H",
    "astronomicalData": {
      "0": { 
        "sunrise": "2025-02-01T06:46:00",
        "sunset": "2025-02-01T17:22:00",
        "validDate": "2025-02-01",
        "moonrise": "2025-02-01T08:52:00",
        "moonset": "2025-02-01T21:13:00"
      },
      "1": { 
        "sunrise": "2025-02-01T06:50:00",
        "sunset": "2025-02-01T17:26:00",
        "validDate": "2025-02-02",
        "moonrise": "2025-02-01T09:21:00",
        "moonset": "2025-02-01T22:21:00"
      }
    }
  }
}