Winter Solstice 2024 is on Saturday, December 21, 2024: What is a Winter Solstice?

Saturday, December 21, 2024 is Winter Solstice 2024. Winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon which for the Northern Hemisphere occurs in December and which for the Southern Hemisphere occurs in June.

Winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon which for the Northern Hemisphere occurs in December and which for the Southern Hemisphere occurs in June.

Winter Solstice is a 2004 American drama film written and directed by Josh Sternfeld. The screenplay focuses on the efforts of a man to interact with and relate to his sons in the years following the accidental death of his wife.

Winter Solstice happens every year hon, don't worry.

You know how the days get shorter and shorter in the winter time? The Winter Solstice is the longest night and the shortest day, the point at which it changes so the days start getting longer and longer to bring back the spring and summer.

It falls around Dec 21st every year... and there is a Summer Solstice (longest day/shortest night) exactly 6 months later, on June 21st.

A lot of calenders mark Winter Solstice as the "first day of winter"

The Mayans never said the world was going to end in 2012... it's just that in 2012, on the Solstice, their current calender cycle comes to an end and a new one begins.

The rest is just crazy hype... these "end of the world" scares happen ever 10 or 20 years; they *always* say proof is in the Bible, or in "natural disasters" rising, or because some psychic said so 400 years ago... but it never actually happens.

This time around they are just clinging to the Mayan mythology.

What part of Earth receives the most sunlight during the Winter Solstice?

Whose winter solstice?

If it isn't mentioned whether it's for the northern or southern hemisphere the answer is...the opposite hemisphere gets most sunlight.

The winter solstice for the northern hemisphere is the summer solstice for the southern hemisphere, so the southern hemisphere is getting the most sunlight.

That occurs on mid-winter's day in the northern hemisphere, which is mid-summer's day in the southern hemisphere.

The winter solstice in the southern hemisphere is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, so the northern hemisphere gets most sunlight, and that happens on mid-summer's day in the northern hemisphere, which is mid-winter's day in the southern hemisphere.

Without saying which hemisphere the winter solstice is for, the only answer is...it's the other hemisphere.

So the correct answer to the question is.......the opposite hemisphere.

At the winter solstice the sun is the lowest it gets for the year, so it's the highest it gets for the year in the opposite hemisphere and so it's the opposite hemisphere that gets most sunlight during each hemisphere's winter soltice.

All the seasons for the northern hemisphere are listed on here with their dates

. . . .

There is a difference between what we call mid summer and mid winter in our normal lives and what they are in the astronomical seasons.

The first day of winter is December 22nd, which is what we call mid-winter's day.

The first day of summer is June 22nd, which is what we call mid-summer's day.

It's a bit odd but the reason is simple.

Mid-winter's day and Mid-summer's day are when the sun reaches it's lowest and highest points in the sky, so they are really true in that sense.

But summer is when the sun is going from it's highest point to the Celestial Equator, which it reaches on September 22nd and that is the first day of autumn.

So half way through summer is one and a half months before that, because each season lasts for three months....91 days (and a quarter)

For the astronomical seasons, mid summer is 5th / 6th August

Winter is when the sun is going from it's lowest point in the sky to the Celestial Equator, which it reaches on March 22nd and that is the first day of spring.

The astronomical mid winter is 5th / 6th February.

The two times the sun reaches the Celestial equator are called the Equinoxes, which means equal day and night, and we get twelve hours of each.

The Spring Equinox is March 22nd when the sun has got to the equator after getting higher every day from it's lowest point at the winter solstice,and the Autumn Equinox is September 22nd after the sun has been getting lower every day from it's highest point at the summer solstice.

When it's spring equinox in the northern hemisphere it's autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere.

It's the same day.

The winter solstice in the northern hemisphere is the same day as the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere.

Whichever hemisphere is having it's winter soltice, it's the other one that's having it's summer solstice on the same day,and gets the most sunlight.

. . .

The reason the sun gets higher and lower in the sky through the seasons is because the earth spins on it's axis at an angle to it's orbit round the sun instead of square on. That angle is called the inclination of the Earth's axis and amounts to 23 1/2 degrees.

If the Earth didn't spin at an angle to it's orbit we wouldn't have seasons.

We are closest to the sun in early January, which is winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere.

The difference in distance between the closest and furthest we get from the sun makes very little difference to how warm the Earth gets through the year.

It varies from 147 to 152 million kilometers, and we are closest to the Sun in December and furthest away in June.The difference in radiation, that's light and heat etc, that the Earth gets can be worked out from the inverse square law.

147squared / 152 squared = 0.93

So we get 93% as much heat in the northern summer compared to northern winter, or 7% more heat in the northern winter than in noerthern summer, which isn't enough difference to have much effect through the seasons.

what is a winter solstice?

The winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer's hemisphere. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradually lengthening nights and shortening days. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the winter solstice occurs some time between December 21 and December 22 each year in the northern hemisphere, and between June 20 and June 21 in the southern hemisphere, during either the shortest day or longest night of the year. Though the winter solstice lasts an instant, the term is also colloquially used like "midwinter" to refer to the full 24-hour period of the day on which it occurs.