Tomorrow, Saturday, December 21, marks the winter solstice, the day of the year with longest night and fewest hours of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. The solstice is an astronomical phenomenon where the northern portion of the Earth’s axis is tilted furthest away from the sun, and takes place at the same time everywhere on earth.
In 2024, the solstice will occur at 4:20 a.m. EST, hence 3:20 a.m. CST, 2:20 a.m. MST, and 1:20 a.m. PST across the United States, and at 11:20 a.m. Central European Time At that instant, the sun will be directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn, or 23.5° south latitude.
As a result, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere.
In the United States and many other countries north of the Equator, the winter solstice marks the first day of winter. However, meteorological winter began on December 1, as, in accordance with the meteorological definition, the seasons begin on the first day of the months that include the equinoxes and solstices.
Solar winter, which began in late November, marks the beginning of the darkest period of the year, that is the quarter of the calendar year with the fewest number of daylight hours.
In the Southern Hemisphere, Wednesday is the summer solstice; the winter solstice there takes place on June 21. In countries south of the equator, Wednesday is the longest day of the year.
It’s important to note that, just because December 21 is the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere, it doesn’t translate into the day on which most of the Northern Hemisphere experiences its earliest sunset or latest sunrise. For those in New York City, for example, the earliest sunset took place on December 8 at 4:27 p.m. although it took place on December 9 in Munich at 4:19 p.m. local time.
The sunset on December 21 will take place at 4:31 p.m. in New York City. At nine hours and 15 minutes, the day will be five hours and 50 minutes shorter than on June 21, the summer solstice and the longest day of the year.
The farther north one travels, the amount of daylight will diminish precipitously. The city of Rovaniemi, the capital of Finland’s northern-most province, Lapland, will only have two hours and 14 minutes of daylight on Saturday, while Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, will see a generous four hours and seven minutes.
Meanwhile, many people will gather at Stonehenge in southern England, believed to have been erected to celebrate celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes, and elsewhere across the globe to celebrate the day, which was also Brumalia, a winter festival in ancient Rome; Koliada, a pre-Christian Slavic winter festival; and Yule, a festival observed by the historical Germanic people.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
