Welcome to the start of astronomical winter!
Dec. 21 marks the Winter Solstice for all of us in the Northern Hemisphere, which corresponds to the shortest day of the year. Sunrise in Southeast Texas this morning was at 7:13 a.m. and we’ll say goodnight to the ole sun at 5:26 p.m. The center of the sun will be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn which means while we will see their shortest amount of daylight, the Southern Hemisphere will see their greatest amount of daylight at the height of their summer months.
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If you look at the facts on the right, while there will be an equal 12 hours of daylight along the equator, folks living above the Arctic Circle (yes, there are actually people up there!), will see perpetual twilight for nearly 24 hours! Imagine the dying sunlight that we all see at dusk being the highest the sun will get for an entire day! It would look something like this:
While today is the shortest day of the year, starting tomorrow, for the next week or so, the minutes of sunshine will continue increasing by two minutes and eight seconds per day. And for the week or so after that, it will continue increasing at the slightly slower pace of about two minutes and seven seconds per day!
Fairly soon, we’ll be talking about hitting the patio after work and having to find the sun shades because it’ll still be light out for a few hours after you’re finished! For more information on anything weather-related and to catch the latest blog from Frank here.
