This article is part of SELF’s 2024 Guide to Getting Outside, an editorial package that explores the connection between nature and well-being through the lens of awe. SELF will be publishing new articles for this series throughout October. Read more here.
Sunrises and sunsets are often the stuff of vacations—something you wake up early to catch at the top of a hike, amid the sonic bliss of birdsong; the backdrop for a golden-hour boat trip. But if you’ve ever found yourself gazing at a cotton-candy sky while, say, stuck in gridlock traffic, you also know that the sun does not discriminate. It doesn’t care whether you are sipping a piña colada on a beach or slamming coffee at work. No matter how uninspiring your surroundings may be, a rising or setting sun can paint them dazzling.
And that’s no small deal. For the 80% of people in the US who live in urban areas, it can often feel like getting a dose of nature’s restorative benefits requires travel. But a spectacular sunrise or sunset can be like a blip of wildness in the flatline of city or suburban living, perhaps even long enough to make you forget about the concrete or the cockroaches or the literal garbage for a second. It’s proof that “even if you are in an incredibly built-up area, nature takes place in the huge canvas of the sky above you,” Alexander Smalley, PhD, a UK-based environmental psychologist who researches the impact of natural experiences on well-being, tells SELF.
That’s a poignant reminder as we barrel toward winter. You might be less enthused about getting outside; it’s colder, and everything looks more barren. But that’s all the more reason to plan what little outdoor time you do take around the sunrise or sunset, when the show in the sky is every bit—if not more—stunning than in any other season.
This is the best time of year to see great sunrises and sunsets.
Any sunrise or sunset can be beautiful, and “best” is subjective. But perhaps the most eye-catching variety happens in a sky that has “high, thin, wispy” clouds, “which are able to get lit up in those bright orange and red colors like a projector screen,” Benjamin Reppert, a meteorology lecturer at Pennsylvania State University and co-founder of sunrise and sunset forecast site SunsetWx, tells SELF. At the same time, the lower part of the atmosphere needs to be clear in order for us to see it, he adds. And thanks to atmospheric conditions, these two factors are most likely to co-occur during the late fall and early winter.
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