Lahaina Noon
A semiannual zero-shadow day in the tropics.
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Twice a year, places between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn experience a zero-shadow day, known as Lāhainā Noon. At solar noon, the sun passes directly overhead, its rays falling straight down so that upright objects cast no visible shadow. This happens when the sun’s declination matches a location’s latitude. The Bishop Museum in Hawaii introduced the term Lāhainā Noon, which comes from the Hawaiian phrase for “cruel sun.”
Quick Facts
- Occurrence frequency
- Twice a year
- Latitude range
- Between approximately 23.5° N and 23.5° S
- Time range in hawaii
- 12:16 to 12:43 pm Hawaii–Aleutian Standard Time
- Hawaiian term origin
- Lāhainā Noon, from lā hainā meaning 'cruel sun'
- Ancient hawaiian name
- kau ka lā i ka lolo, meaning 'the sun rests on the brains'
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- Hawaii is the only US state in the tropics, so it is the only one to experience Lāhainā Noon.
- During Lāhainā Noon, Isamu Noguchi's sculpture Sky Gate in Honolulu casts a perfect circular shadow instead of its usual twisted shadow.
Details
Hawaii is the only U.S. state located in the tropics, so it is the only one that sees Lāhainā Noon. In 2026, Honolulu will experience it on May 26 and July 16. The phenomenon happens twice a year for places between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, when the sun’s direct rays pass overhead before and after the summer solstice. Lāhainā Noon takes place between 12:16 and 12:43 p.m. Hawaii–Aleutian Standard Time.
At that moment, upright objects like flagpoles, bollards, and telephone poles cast no visible shadow. The southernmost parts of Hawaii encounter the event on earlier and later dates than northern areas. For example, in 2001, Hilo on the Big Island saw it around May 18 and July 24; Kahului, Maui, on May 24 and July 18; Honolulu, Oahu, on May 26 and July 15; and Lihue, Kauai, on May 31 and July 11. Between each pair of dates, the sun sits slightly north at solar noon.
The name Lāhainā Noon was chosen in a contest sponsored by the Bishop Museum in the 1990s. It comes from lā hainā, the old name for Lāhainā, which means “cruel sun” in Hawaiian. The ancient Hawaiian name for the event was kau ka lā i ka lolo, meaning “the sun rests on the brains.”
In popular culture
The event is often covered by Hawaiian media. Activities are associated with the event. Sky Gate, a unique sculpture in Honolulu created by artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi, features a bendy, bumpy ring that has large changes in height around its circumference. Most of the year, it makes a curvy, twisted shadow on the ground, but during Lāhainā Noon, the height-changing ring casts a perfect circular shadow on the ground. There are often activities held by the City & County of Honolulu around the time of the event on the Frank Fasi Civic Grounds, where the sculpture is located. The phenomenon occurs in stories, including "Lāhainā Noon" by Eric Paul Shaffer (Leaping Dog, 2005), which won the Ka Palapala Po'okela book award for Excellence in "Aloha from beyond Hawaii."
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