Basel-City, Switzerland
Basel-City follows Swiss time, using CET in standard time and CEST during daylight saving. Basel, Riehen, and Bettingen share one clock, while sunrise varies slightly by exact position, season, weather, and the visible horizon.
Basel, Switzerland
Friday, 4 September 2026
UTC+2 · Europe/Zurich
Time and sun data for Basel — the largest city of Basel-City
The sun in Basel
Sunrise 6:53 AM Solar noon 1:30 PM Sunset 8:07 PM Daylight 13 h 14 min Night 10 h 46 min Civil twilight 6:21 AM – 8:39 PM
Switzerland · 31 cities
Largest cities
All cities
- Am Ring
- Bachletten
- Basel
- Basel-Stadt
- Bettingen
- Breite
- Bruderholz
- Brueglingen
- Clara
- Gotthelf
- Grossbasel
- Gundeldingen
- Hirzbrunnen
- Im Schlipf
- Iselin
- Kanton Basel-Stadt
- Kleinbasel
- Kleinbasel Altstadt
- Kleinhüningen
- Klybeck
- Maienbühl
- Matthäus
- Neuhaus
- Riehen
- Rosental
- Sankt Chrischona
- Sankt Jakob
- Sankt Johann
- St. Alban
- Vorstädte
- Wettsteinquartier
Current time in Basel-City, Switzerland
The entire canton observes a single time zone. The local time in central Basel is also the correct civil time in Riehen and Bettingen, so cantonal travel never requires resetting a watch. CET means Central European Time and has an offset of UTC+1. CEST means Central European Summer Time and has an offset of UTC+2. Switzerland moves between them under its national daylight-saving schedule.
Basel lies close to international borders, which makes clear time notation useful. Nearby areas across the borders generally coordinate their clocks with Switzerland, but a distant caller’s location may follow entirely different seasonal rules.
Basel sits beside borders, yet the most troublesome time difference is usually the one hidden in somebody’s calendar settings.
Basel, Riehen, and Bettingen
Basel is the dominant city and the cantonal centre. Riehen and Bettingen complete the canton’s municipalities. All three use the same legal time for public transport, opening hours, events, and appointments.
Select Basel for the canton’s general current time. Use a location-aware Swiss zone for future calendar dates. Specify the zone when inviting people outside Central Europe. Choose the exact municipality for sunrise and sunset details.
Basel provides a sensible default for most solar information in this compact canton. Even so, a calculation centred on Basel should not be presented as minute-perfect for every viewpoint in Riehen or Bettingen.
Urban sunrise and seasonal daylight
Basel-City experiences longer daylight in summer and shorter daylight in winter. The timing changes gradually from day to day, so a value for one date should not be reused as though it applied throughout the month.
In an urban setting, buildings can hide the low Sun even after its calculated rise. Trees, slopes, and local orientation matter too. An open position beside the Rhine may have a different visible horizon from a narrow street or a site near higher ground.
Dawn begins before sunrise and can supply useful natural light. After sunset, twilight delays full darkness. These intervals are important for travel, outdoor events, and photography, whereas the formal sunrise and sunset times mark specific astronomical stages.
Questions and answers
- Is Basel-City on the same time as the rest of Switzerland?
- Yes. It follows the nationwide CET and CEST clock.
- Do Riehen and Basel have different times?
- No. Their official local time is identical.
- Why might sunrise be hard to see from a Basel street?
- Buildings, trees, terrain, or cloud may block the horizon even after the calculated sunrise.