Winter starts this Saturday, December 21, 2024 with the winter solstice. What is this phenomenon which corresponds to the shortest day of the year and why this date?
Winter has arrived! And with it the cold and the gray, even if they set in a few days early. In the northern hemisphere, the winter season officially begins this Saturday, December 21, 2024 with the winter solstice. The French will have experienced the shortest day of the year and the longest night. For example, this day only lasts 8:14 hours and this night 3:46 hours in the capital, Paris.
Paradoxically, from this Saturday the days will get longer, gradually gaining a few seconds of sunshine, until the summer solstice, the opposite phenomenon scheduled for June 21. If on Earth the phenomenon of the winter solstice extends over a full day, the solstice only lasts an instant from an astronomical point of view, a few minutes at most: when the position of the sun seen from the blue planet reaches its northern or southern extreme.
The Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (IMCCE) announced that the winter solstice 2024 takes place this Saturday, December 21, at 9:20 a.m. and 30 seconds (Paris time) exactly (9:48 p.m. UTC). During the winter solstice, the declination of the Sun is at its minimum. We are entering the coldest days of the year.
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22:00 – How long is the day and night on the winter solstice?
The length of day and night depends on latitude and location. Overall, on the day of the winter solstice, it is light for just over 8 hours in the northern hemisphere. For a night which therefore spans almost two-thirds of a 24-hour cycle, or 16 hours!
19:28 – Is the winter solstice always on December 21?
In our hemisphere, the most common date of the winter solstice is December 21, but this is not always the case. The solstice being caused by the inclination of the Earth which is “leaned” by 23 degrees relative to its axis of rotation, there are however shifts linked to leap years and the rotation of the Earth which goes around the sun in 365.25 days. If the winter solstice will continue to fall on the classic date of December 21 until 2026, it will occur for example on December 22 in 2027, December 20 in 2080 and December 23 in 2303.
4:50 p.m. – The winter solstice marks the start of the coldest three months of the year
During the astronomical phenomenon of the winter solstice, the declination of the Sun is at its minimum (-23°26.1'), which corresponds to the moment when the sun's rays illuminate us the least. The winter solstice marks the start of the three coldest months of the year. But amid all this grayness, there is some good news! From the next day, Sunday December 22, the start of the lengthening of the days begins until the summer solstice on June 21.
