The darkest day of the year will arrive tomorrow as we welcome Winter Solstice ’19. The solstice occurs when one of the Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun. When the solstice arrives, the sun’s rays are directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude that circles the Earth in the Southern Hemisphere. While it’s arrival brings the start of winter in the northern hemisphere, it also brings the start of the summer season in the southern hemisphere.
While winter officially rolls in tomorrow, meteorologists count the seasons slightly differently. Meteorological winter began on December 1, the start of a typical 3-month long stretch of colder, potentially wintry weather across the country.
The winter solstice features more darkness than light in the Northern Hemisphere. While days will start getting a little bit longer starting on Sunday, days will continue to get colder on average through the next 4-8 weeks due to a thermal lag between light reaching Earth and the temperatures here.
