Just knowing that a 5pm sunset in Birmingham is just around the corner is putting a smile on my face. This is England, not Scandinavia, and anything earlier than that should be illegal. Why am I, a grown adult, thinking of getting into bed before I’ve even finished work? Make it make sense.
We’ve had to endure 14 weeks of it being dark before the evening’s even begun. But, from Thursday, February 5, I can clock out and still see one final sliver of sunshine (whether dependent) before it disappears behind the earth and I make my way home. That’s called progress.
To be exact, the sun will set at exactly 17:01 in Birmingham on Thursday, February 5. That’s 9 hours, 18 minutes and 52 seconds of daylight. But the days are only going to get explenetialy brighter from her on out—with Birmingham experiencing nearly 11 hours of daytime by the time February ends.
When are the next big sunsets in Birmingham?
Calenders at the ready? There’s even more dates to get excited about it the near future (mostly March). Fast-forward to Monday, March 9, for the first 6pm sunset of 2026, while the first day of the year with more sunshine than nighttime arrives the following week on Wednesday, March 18 (12 hours and 2 minutes of sunshine).
Just another week after that, the clocks spring forward for British Summer Time (BST) on Sunday, March 29—a while day earlier than in 2025—before the first 8pm sunset of 2026 (Sunday, April 12) and the first 9pm sunset of 2026 (Sunday, May 17). The longest day of the year still feels a way away on Sunday, June 21.
I don’t want to wish the time away, of course, so let’s enjoy our 5pm sunsets for now. Without these earlier sunsets, we would’t be able to enjoy to such enthralling activities as the Birmingham Light Festival. With 141 sunsets after 8pm this year in Birmingham, there’ll be plenty of time to enjoy them when they eventually show up…