Sun and shade map
Watch the shadows of buildings and terrain move through the day. Search for your city, drag the time slider and see where the sun falls and where the shade is at any moment.
What it's for
Find the patio in the sun, the bench in the shade, or the exact moment a street lights up at golden hour. It's handy for photography, for picking a table, or for checking whether a balcony gets any sun.
To see how good today's sunset will be where you are, check today's sunset.
The sun and shadows today in San Francisco
- Rises in the east-southeastToday the sun rises at 6:35 AM in San Francisco, 108 degrees from north. Early in the day the shadows are long and point the other way.
- At midday, 38 degrees upAt 11:53 AM, with the sun at its highest, a 10 m (33 ft) building casts a 13 m (43 ft) shadow. It's the shortest shadow of the day.
- Sets in the west-southwestAt 5:10 PM, 252 degrees from north. An hour earlier, that 10 m (33 ft) building's shadow is already 56 m (183 ft) long.
- Through the yearAt midday, the sun climbs to 76 degrees at the June solstice, and a 10 m (33 ft) building casts 3 m (8 ft) of shadow; at the December solstice it reaches 29 degrees, with 18 m (60 ft) of shadow.
Frequently asked questions
From the exact position of the sun at that place and time, and the building's height. The lower the sun, the longer the shadow: a 10 m (33 ft) building casts a 10 m (33 ft) shadow when the sun is 45 degrees up, and twice that when the sun is at about 27 degrees. The shadow always points away from the sun.
The map only raises buildings whose height is recorded in the map's open data. Almost every building in a big city has one; in small towns it can be missing, and then you see the terrain and its shadow, but not each building's.
No. They're yesterday's satellite image, useful for seeing what the sky in the area is usually like. To find out whether clouds will get in the way of today's sunset, check today's sunset where you are, updated every hour.
Yes. Pick a date in the map's calendar and move the time slider. That way you can see, for example, whether a patio will get sun on a winter afternoon or sit in the shade at noon in summer.