Winter Solstice

earth · seasons · astronomy · light

Earth tilts away. On the winter solstice, your hemisphere is tilted as far from the Sun as it gets all year. This tilt makes the Sun travel a lower path across the sky, so it's up for fewer hours and the day feels short.

Longest night ever. Winter solstice gives you the longest night and shortest day of the entire year. After this day, the daylight slowly gets longer each day until summer arrives.

Happens twice yearly. Winter solstice occurs once in the Northern Hemisphere and once in the Southern Hemisphere, but on different dates. When it's winter solstice in the north, it's summer solstice in the south at the exact same moment.

Polar darkness. Near the North and South Poles, the winter solstice brings either total darkness or just dim twilight all day long. Some places above the Arctic Circle get no sunlight at all for weeks around this time.

Sun at lowest point. During winter solstice, the Sun traces its lowest arc across your sky compared to any other day of the year. This low angle is why the sunlight is weaker and colder during winter.