Golden hour in Riga in January

Riga lies at 56.95° N, in the high latitudes, where summer evenings stretch and winter days are brief. Its longest measured day falls on Sat 20 June 2026 with 17h 53m of daylight, and its shortest on Mon 21 December 2026 with 6h 43m — a difference of 11h 10m between the two extremes.

Evening golden hour in Riga runs for roughly 67 minutes at the height of summer, 50 minutes around the March equinox and 86 minutes at midwinter. The warm window is actually widest in the colder months, which makes winter evenings unusually forgiving here.

The sun sets toward 319° NW in late June and toward 225° SW in late December, a shift of about 94° in where the last light lands — worth checking before committing to a west-facing viewpoint. In Riga, around midsummer the sky never reaches full darkness — evening blue hour runs into morning twilight.