Midnight isn't the start.
Sunrise is.

When is the first sunrise of 2027?

The first sunrise of 2027 on land happens in Antarctica just after midnight local time, the first in an inhabited place is on New Zealand's Pitt Island at about 4:50 a.m., and in most of the continental US it comes between roughly 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. on Friday, January 1. The world facts come from the U.S. Naval Observatory's first-sunrise note. The city times below are our estimates using the NOAA solar equations.

Estimates for each city's center, flat horizon at sea level. Civil dawn is when the Sun is 6 degrees below the horizon, as the National Weather Service defines it. Expect a minute or two of difference at your exact spot.

You don't have to stay up for the new year. You can get up for it.

Updated November 2026

A New Year's morning, sketched out

Dear early riser, here is the kind of morning we built this page for, using New York's numbers. Bed at 10:40 on New Year's Eve, which feels slightly rebellious. Alarm at 6:10. Two coats each, a thermos of cocoa, and twenty minutes of driving to a pier that faces southeast. Arrive around 6:52, in the blue half-light of civil twilight, because the color often comes before the Sun does.

The Sun is due at about 7:20. Maybe it shows clean; maybe it slips behind a lid of grey cloud ten minutes later. Either way, you're among a handful of quietly pleased people instead of a crowd. Breakfast by 8:15, and a whole bright first day of the year still ahead. That's the trade: a short night for a first memory of 2027 that isn't a countdown.

Honest limits of these sunrise times

• Hills and buildings. All times assume a flat horizon. A ridge to the east means the Sun appears later than listed; a high viewpoint with a sea horizon can mean slightly earlier. The Naval Observatory's 7:05 a.m. for Cadillac Mountain is a few minutes earlier than our flat-horizon estimate for the same spot, partly because of the summit's height.
• Refraction. The atmosphere bends light near the horizon, and on very cold mornings that can shift sunrise by a minute or so.
• Clouds. No calculation can promise color. A clear eastern horizon with some high cloud overhead is the classic recipe; a thick low bank to the east usually hides the Sun.
• Asterfold is a sunset planner first. It also shows sunrise ratings, sunrise directions and the year's range of sunrise points, but its journal and forecast comparisons are built around sunsets.

How to plan the first sunrise with Asterfold

1. Open Light Path Studio for January 1. The sky dome draws the Sun's real path for your place and date, with the year's range of sunrise and sunset directions on the rim.
2. Save your viewpoint and aim. Stand at your spot (or pick it on the map), turn toward the view, and check that the sunrise falls inside your frame.
3. Check Tonight on New Year's Eve. Sunset, Stars and Sunrise ratings with plain-English reasons, plus hour-by-hour low, mid and high cloud from MET Norway.

One design decision we made: calculated, forecast, estimated and observed numbers are labelled differently, so you always know which is maths and which is a weather guess. Free covers the Studio, aiming for 2 viewpoints, tonight's ratings and the next 3 evenings; Asterfold Plus adds unlimited viewpoints, sky alerts and the full 10-day outlook.

Midnight countdown or first sunrise?

Who should pick something else: if you need to know whether a specific peak or building will block the view, a terrain-aware photography planner will serve you better than any flat-horizon tool, ours included. And if your viewpoint is remote, icy or unlit, go with someone, bring a light, and tell someone where you'll be.