EDITIONS / INTERACTIVE / NOV 8, 2026 / THE BEACH
Where the sun goes down
From the sand at Grand Avenue, the sun doesn’t set in the same place twice. In December it drops into open water far to the southwest. In June it swings so far north that, from El Segundo, it slides down behind the Malibu coast. Around the equinoxes it passes the Channel Islands. This page works out where it sets, from your beach, on any day of the year.
Not an official City of El Segundo page. Written by Claude (Opus 5.5) with a Claude research helper on Nov 8, 2026, at the request of Michael Hoydich. Sunset times and bearings are computed in your browser from NOAA’s published solar equations and the coordinates sourced below. They are estimates, not observations: clouds, haze and the marine layer decide what you actually see. Paintings are public domain works from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s open access collection.
The short version
- 4:54 PMSunset at El Segundo Beach today, Nov 8, at a bearing of about 250°, over open ocean. estimate
- 57°How far the sunset point swings along the horizon between the winter and summer solstices, from about 242° to about 299°. estimate
- 122 daysFrom El Segundo Beach in 2026, about Apr 21 to Aug 20, the sun sets north of Point Dume, behind land. estimate
- 70 daysThe same window from Redondo Beach Pier, about May 17 to Jul 25. The farther south you stand, the shorter it gets. estimate
Pick a beach and a day
The drawing is a view west from the sand. The red dot is where the sun touches the horizon. The dark shape on the right is the Malibu coast, drawn as a sketch, not to scale.
Sunset details appear here.
Computed in your browser for the current year with NOAA’s solar equations. Times are for the sea horizon; when the sun sets behind the mountains it disappears a few minutes earlier than shown. estimate
| Beach | Land starts at | Sun sets behind land in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Dockweiler (Imperial Hwy) | Point Dume, 283° | About 132 days, Apr 16 to Aug 25 |
| El Segundo Beach (Grand Ave) | Point Dume, 285° | About 122 days, Apr 21 to Aug 20 |
| Manhattan Beach Pier | Point Dume, 290° | About 97 days, May 3 to Aug 7 |
| Hermosa Beach Pier | Point Mugu, 292.5° | About 82 days, May 11 to Jul 31 |
| Redondo Beach Pier | Point Mugu, 294° | About 70 days, May 17 to Jul 25 |
Computed for this page with NOAA’s solar equations. estimate
Why the sun walks up the coast
The sun sets due west, at 270°, only around the equinoxes. In winter it sets south of west; in summer, north of west. At El Segundo’s latitude, this page’s math puts the Dec 21 sunset near 242° at about 4:48 p.m., and the Jun 21 sunset near 299° at about 8:08 p.m. estimate
The South Bay coast runs roughly north and south and faces west across Santa Monica Bay. Across the bay, the Malibu coast runs west to Point Dume and on to Point Mugu, where, Wikipedia says, Mugu Rock marks the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains.
listing From each beach, whichever of those two points sits farther south on the horizon is where open water ends. Once the sunset point passes it, the sun goes down behind land.
A Hermosa Beach photographer described the June version in 2022: the sun is far to the north, and sets over the Malibu coast.
reported
Catalina never gets in the way. From El Segundo Beach the island’s west end sits near 199° on the compass, far south of even the December sunset. estimate
Islands on the horizon
Between open ocean and the Malibu coast sits a narrow slot where the Channel Islands rise on clear days. Anacapa Island Light, which Wikipedia places at the island’s east end, is at 34.0158, -119.3595 listing; Devils Peak on Santa Cruz Island, at 34.0291, -119.7844, is listed at 2,429 feet listing. The National Park Service gives it as 2,450 feet: Diablo Peak (Devil's Peak) is the tallest peak on the Channel Islands at 2,450 ft.
fact
From El Segundo Beach those two points sit between about 276° and 278°, so the sun sets toward the islands for about five days around the turn of April and about six days in early September. estimate
The good season is now
KCRW asked in 2017 why Southern California sunsets look best in winter. Its story put the best stretch Between the September Equinox... and the winter solstice.
reported That is this week. The sun is setting over open water from every beach on this page, and it will keep moving south until Dec 21.
How the numbers are made
NOAA’s calculator notes say its equations are based on equations from Astronomical Algorithms, by Jean Meeus,
are theoretically accurate to within a minute for locations between +/- 72° latitude,
and assume 0.833° of atmospheric refraction.
NOAA also warns that the actual observed values of sunrise, sunset and solar position may differ from the results presented here.
fact
This page uses those equations to find the sunset time and compass bearing for each beach, then compares that bearing with the bearing from the beach to Point Dume, Point Mugu and the islands. It treats the coastline as a line of sight and ignores the height of the mountains, so the “behind land” days are close, not exact. estimate
| Place | Latitude, longitude |
|---|---|
| Dockweiler State Beach at Imperial Hwy | 33.9303, -118.4359 |
| El Segundo Beach at Grand Ave | 33.9168, -118.4288 |
| Manhattan Beach Pier | 33.8837, -118.4136 |
| Hermosa Beach Pier | 33.8618, -118.4020 |
| Redondo Beach Pier | 33.8392, -118.3911 |
| Santa Monica Pier | 34.0086, -118.4986 |
| Point Dume | 34.0009, -118.8068 |
| Point Mugu | 34.0856, -119.0600 |
| Catalina, west end | 33.4792, -118.6065 |
Coordinates as listed by the sources below. listing
Sources
- NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, solar calculation details, read Nov 8, 2026.
- NOAA solar calculator, read Nov 8, 2026.
- California Coastal Trail, El Segundo Beach.
- California Coastal Trail, Dockweiler State Beach at Imperial Hwy.
- California Coastal Trail, Hermosa Beach Municipal Pier.
- California Coastal Trail, Redondo Beach Pier.
- Wikipedia, Manhattan Beach Pier.
- Wikipedia, Santa Monica Pier.
- Wikipedia, Point Dume.
- Wikipedia, Point Mugu.
- Wikipedia, Anacapa Island Light.
- Wikipedia, Devils Peak.
- National Park Service, Santa Cruz Island facts.
- MyTopo, Catalina Island West End (GNIS).
- Hermosa Wave Photography, Sunset at 22nd St., Jun 19, 2022.
- KCRW, why Southern California sunsets are so beautiful in the winter, Dec 21, 2017.
What this check could not verify
- Exactly when the sun disappears behind the mountains on a given summer evening. That depends on the ridge height at that bearing, which this page doesn’t model.
- Whether the islands are visible on a given day. Haze and the marine layer often hide them.
- A report of a green flash seen from El Segundo, Manhattan, Hermosa or Redondo. This check found none.
Art
Paintings are from the Cleveland Museum of Art open access collection, marked CC0 (public domain) by the museum and shown from the museum’s own image server. Works that showed people were left out. None is a picture of the South Bay.
elsegundo.xyz · LAX after midnight · Hardware row · Site updates
Written by Claude (Opus 5.5) on Nov 8, 2026, with a Claude research helper that read the sources above with a web fetch tool. Requested by Michael Hoydich, Nov 8, 2026.