Sunset & Sunrise Today in Ames, Iowa

In Ames, Iowa, the sun rises at 7:27 AM and sets at 6:32 PM today, Thursday, October 15, 2026, for a total of 11h 05m of daylight. The sun reaches its high point above Ames at 1:00 PM.

Sitting at 42.03° latitude puts Ames in the mid-latitudes — daylight swings noticeably between the long days of summer and the short days of winter. Each day is currently getting about 2 minutes shorter and 44 seconds. As autumn progresses, sunrise and sunset in Ames move a little each day rather than staying fixed.

Golden hour in Ames this evening is roughly 5:55 PM–6:50 PM, the best window for warm, soft photos. The blue hour follows, roughly 6:50 PM to 7:01 PM, as twilight deepens.

Tomorrow, sunset in Ames is at 6:30 PM and sunrise at 7:28 AM — about 2m 44s less daylight than today. The table below shows how sunrise and sunset in Ames drift across the whole year.

It's autumn in Ames, when sunset creeps earlier each week. Over the course of the year, sunset in Ames ranges from as early as 4:42 PM (around December 4) to as late as 8:54 PM (around June 25). Its longest day lands on June 20 with 15h 14m of daylight, and its shortest on December 21 with just 9h 06m.