What is the Winter Solstice you may ask? Well, in laymen's terms, it is the shortest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. It is also the official mark of winter for the Northern Hemisphere.
What does it mean?
It means that on Wednesday, December 21st (today) the Northern Hemisphere will receive it's fewest hours of light over any other day in the year.
Most people think the Winter Solstice is an entire day, but in reality the Solstice itself happens in an instant. It actually happens at 3:44 AM my time (5:44 AM EST). That is the time when the North Pole is at it's furthermost tilt away from the sun at 23.5 degrees. This position means that no rays from the sun will get there and plunges the entire North Pole into complete darkness for a time.
What happens South of the Equator?
At that exact moment, (3:44 AM my time) the sun will shine directly overhead at Noon along the invisible latitude line known as the "Tropic of Capricorn" which is at 23.5 degrees South of the Equator. This will also be the furthest South the sun will shine all year, which makes it the longest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. The Northern Hemisphere has the shortest day and the Southern Hemisphere has the longest day on the same day, makes sense right?
What does Solstice mean?
In Latin, solstice literally means: "the sun stands still".
It was given this description because it marks the furthest point South the sun will reach in the sky of the Northern Hemisphere. After this moment, the sun will start it's northern trek back up till it reaches its Summer Solstice. So, for a brief moment the sun appears to "stand still" as it changes it's course.
What happens next?
Every day from this day forward will get slightly longer. The sun will rise slightly earlier each day and set slightly later each day.
However, this does not mean that the temperature will immediately get warmer. Days will only average about 9 hours of daylight in the coming weeks, whereas they average about 15 hours of daylight around the Summer Solstice.
Also, the oceans are largely responsible for moderating the temperatures on land and it takes a lot of energy from the sun to sufficiently warm them.
So, for the next couple weeks, enjoy your movies and hot cocoa as the days are only going to get longer from here!
Live well my friends!
Sources:
http://www.livescience.com/57280-winter-solstice-science-explained.html
Image Sources:
http://tonalinagual.blogspot.com/2015_12_23_archive.html
http://abc7.com/weather/what-is-the-winter-solstice/1664384/
https://europasicewolf.wordpress.com/tag/wolves/
Follow: @jrcornel
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Cool! I didn't know exactly when it happens. I do know that on December 21st the earth pivots and the north pole starts to move closer to the sun. I am very conscious of how the days start getting longer. If you really pay attention, can see the days get longer by a minute each day. I know that might sound crazy, but I'm not a winter person (one of the reasons we moved from Buffalo NY to Roswell NM) I am a little sad when June 21st comes along because then the days get shorter. :-(
Haha yep! I believe the sun rises about 1 minute earlier each day and sets 1 minute later each day.
And it is our Summer Solstice tonight .......
Yep! Where are you?
Cape Town, South Africa ....
What happened to summer? I can't wear shorts anymore and my dog's water bowl is frozen solid.
Haha Im wearing shorts and playing golf ;)
Hi @jrcornel
I am in South Africa and the Tropic of Capricorn runs through our country and we are in full on summer as you stated above, today the maximum temp in Pretoria where I stay was 31 degrees Celsius, nothing frozen here!
Haha well lucky you! :)
It's Sacrifices Time! :D
very interesting :)
Nice post. At least the days are getting longer now even though it is really cold:)
Great explanation!