The sun and the clock in Tel Aviv (2026)
Tel Aviv lies at 34.8°E. Its time zone, UTC+2, is built around the 30°E meridian. The 4.8° gap between them means the clock runs roughly 19 minutes behind the sun: solar noon arrives at about 11:41 rather than 12:00. Under daylight saving the clocks move 60 minutes forward, widening the gap to 41 minutes and pushing solar noon to 12:41.
The longest day of 2026 is 22 June, with 14h 15m of daylight. The shortest is 22 December, with 10h 3m. The swing between them is 4h 12m. At this latitude the seasons are visible in the clock, but never dramatic.
The earliest sunrise and the latest sunset do not land on the longest day. In Tel Aviv the sun comes up earliest on 12 June at 05:34, while the latest sunset waits until 1 July at 19:51. The equation of time is what separates them: the Earth's elliptical orbit and axial tilt move solar noon back and forth by several minutes over the year.
The sky stays usably light for a while after the sun goes down. In Tel Aviv that civil twilight runs about 24 minutes at the equinox.
Every figure in this section is computed from the city's own latitude, longitude and IANA time zone using NOAA solar algorithms (Spencer, 1971), accurate to about ±2 arcminutes below 65° latitude.
