Afghan Guide

Explainer15 Aqrab 14053 min read

The shortest day in Afghanistan: sunrise and sunset on 1 Jadi 1405

The shortest day of the year in Afghanistan is 1 Jadi 1405, which is 22 December 2026. In Kabul the sun rises at 06:56 and sets at 16:47, so the day lasts about 9 hours 51 minutes. At midsummer it lasts about 14 hours 28 minutes.

Kabul in the morning sun, with the mountains behind the cityPhoto: Qasim Mirzaie
Kabul in the morning sun, with the mountains behind the cityPhoto: Qasim Mirzaie
Kabul in the morning sun, with the mountains behind the city

Why it is 22 December in Kabul

The December solstice in 2026 is at 20:50 Universal Time on 21 December, says Wikipedia. Kabul time is 4 hours 30 minutes ahead of Universal Time, so in Kabul the solstice comes at 01:20 in the night after Shab-e Chella, early on 22 December. By the date converter, 22 December 2026 is 1 Jadi 1405, a Tuesday. It is also the first day of the chilla: see Chilla, the forty days of winter and Shab-e Chella, the night before.

Sunrise and sunset, city by city

These are the times for 22 December 2026, in Kabul time, which the whole country keeps. We calculated them with the same arithmetic as the site's prayer times, and checked each against the US Naval Observatory's tables, for this day and for the midsummer day below. All twenty times matched to the minute.

  • Jalalabad: sunrise 06:51, sunset 16:42
  • Kabul: sunrise 06:56, sunset 16:47
  • Kandahar: sunrise 07:03, sunset 17:08
  • Mazar-i-Sharif: sunrise 07:11, sunset 16:49
  • Herat: sunrise 07:24, sunset 17:15

The sun rises first in the east, in Jalalabad, and last in the west, in Herat, which lies about seven degrees of longitude west of Kabul. That is why Herat's sunrise is 28 minutes after Kabul's. The US Naval Observatory also gives Kabul's civil twilight: it is light enough to see outdoors from 06:28, and until 17:15.

Winter against summer

On 21 June 2027 (31 Jawza 1406, the longest day) the same cities have:

  • Jalalabad: sunrise 04:36, sunset 19:04, a day of 14 h 28 min, against 9 h 51 min in winter
  • Kabul: sunrise 04:41, sunset 19:09, 14 h 28 min, against 9 h 51 min
  • Kandahar: sunrise 05:02, sunset 19:15, 14 h 13 min, against 10 h 05 min
  • Mazar-i-Sharif: sunrise 04:43, sunset 19:24, 14 h 41 min, against 9 h 38 min
  • Herat: sunrise 05:09, sunset 19:37, 14 h 28 min, against 9 h 51 min

Day length is sunset minus sunrise, from the rounded times above. Kabul gains 4 hours 37 minutes of daylight between winter and summer, and Mazar-i-Sharif, the farthest north, gains 5 hours 3 minutes. Kandahar, the farthest south, gains the least, 4 hours 8 minutes.

What the shortest day does not mean

The solstice is the day with the least daylight, but it is not the day with the earliest sunset or the latest sunrise. Wikipedia explains that those dates differ from the solstice, because the length of the solar day changes through the year and the offset also depends on latitude. So do not expect the sun to set a minute earlier on 22 December than on the days around it.

After the solstice the days get longer, slowly at first. The cold, however, goes on for weeks: the coldest period, the chilla, begins on the same day.

Planning around the short day

  • Sunset on 22 December is before 17:20 in every one of these cities, so plan journeys to arrive in daylight. For mountain roads see the winter roads and passes.
  • Prayer times move with the sun. Check the day's times for your own city on the prayer times page; if your mosque's timetable differs by a minute or two, follow the mosque.
  • The winter times in this article are for one day. They change by a minute or two every few days, so use the tool for any other date.
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