If you’re getting sick of how early it gets dark in the UK, you’ll be happy to hear that the dark days are almost over.
We’ve finally reached the shortest day of the year – the Winter Solstice.
The Winter Solstice officially takes place at 03:27 GMT tomorrow, when the sun is at its lowest in the sky.
Tomorrow, there will be just seven hours, 49 minutes and 42 seconds of daylight in London.
‘This means that the length of the day during the winter solstice is 8 hours, 49 minutes shorter than the summer solstice,’ Royal Museums Greenwich explained.
If you’re getting sick of how early it gets dark in the UK, you’ll be happy to hear that the dark days are almost over. We’ve finally reached the shortest day of the year – the Winter Solstice
The winter solstice takes place every December, and marks the 24-hour period with the fewest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
Since the Earth is tilted 23.4 degrees on its axis, the arc the Sun moves through during the day will rise and fall across the year as the Earth’s pole points either towards or away from the Sun.
The winter solstice occurs at the minimum point for the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun is lowest in the sky.
‘At this time, the Earth’s North Pole is pointing away from the Sun (which is why it is so much colder in the Northern Hemisphere),’ Royal Museums Greenwich said.
‘For people living in the Southern Hemisphere, the South Pole is pointing towards the Sun, making it summertime “Down Under”.’
The Winter Solstice officially takes place at 03:27 GMT tomorrow, when the sun is at its lowest in the sky
| Year | Winter Starts | Winter Ends |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 22 December | 20 March |
| 2024 | 21 December | 20 March |
| 2025 | 21 December | 20 March |
The exact moment of the solstice will occur at 03:27 GMT in the UK, although most people see the entire day as the Winter Solstice.
And the good news is that after tomorrow, the days will start getting longer and the nights shorter.
The word ‘solstice’ comes from the Latin ‘solstitium’, which means ‘Sun stands still.’
At the winter solstice, the apparent movement of the sun reaches its most southerly point, before it changes direction.
While many people see the Winter Solstice as the start of winter, others think we’re already well into winter.
This is because there’s actually two definitions for the start of the season – the meteorological and astronomical winter.
Astronomical winter sees the winter solstice as the start of winter, while meteorological winter uses December 1.
‘At the Met Office, we often use a meteorological definition of the seasons,’ the Met Office explained.
‘By the meteorological calendar, the first day of winter is always 1 December; ending on 28 (or 29 during a Leap Year) February.’
