winter solstice 2011

Winter solstice explained

By Justin Grieser

If you’ve grown weary of short days and are looking forward to more sunlight, you won’t have to wait much longer. Today is the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, bringing us the shortest daylight period and longest night of the year. Going forward, the days will gradually lengthen as the sun climbs higher in the sky over the next six months.

In 2011 (this year), the winter solstice occurs at 12:30 a.m. EST on December 22. As the first day of astronomical winter* in the Northern Hemisphere, the solstice marks the time at which the sun shines directly overhead at 23.5 degrees south latitude. With the North Pole tilted away from the sun, locations north of the equator see the sun take its lowest and shortest path across the southern sky.

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A waning crescent moon hangs over the Chesapeake Bay just before sunrise on the the first morning of astronomical winter, the Winter Solstice, in North Beach, Md.

Ray K. Saunders / The Washington Post

Druids, pagans and revellers cheer as the sun rises at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. The unseasonable warm weather encouraged a larger than normal crowd to gather at the famous historic stone circle to celebrate the sunrise closest to the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year.

Matt Cardy / Getty Images

People participate in a Mayan ceremony commemorating the winter solstice at the ceremonial center of San Andres, in San Andres, El Salvador, Dec 18. 2011.

Luis Romero / AP

Dancers make their way throught the streets during the Burning the Clocks Festival on Dec. 21, 2011 in Brighton, England. The annual celebration is enjoyed by thousands of people who carry paper lanterns through the streets of Brighton culminating on Brighton Beach where the lanterns are burned and the winter solstice is marked.

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images