It's the longest night and shortest day of the year ... good news, it will start get lighter every day from today. Next stop, spring.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
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Friday, December 21, 2012
At about noon today, the North Pole will be tilted furtherest from the sun. It's called the winter solstice, and it not only makes Santa's trip a little more difficult, it's also when the sun appears at its lowest altitude above the horizon. Broken down: It's the shortest day of the year. As this calculator on sunrise and sunset shows, daylight in eastern Pennsylvania today shrinks to nine hours, 16 minutes and two seconds. Sunrise is at 7:22 a.m. and sunset at 4:38 p.m. Good news, tomorrow, we will have about 2 seconds more daylight than today. And that trend will continue until the summer solstice, only six months away.
The Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, happens today on Thursday, Dec. 22.
The Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, happens today on Thursday, Dec. 22. According to timeanddate.com, the December solstice occurs when the sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. In other words, it is when the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun, the website said. The website says December solstice occurs annually on a day between Dec. 20 and 23, depending on the Gregorian calendar. On this date, all places above a latitude of 66.5 degrees north (Arctic Polar Circle) are now in darkness, while locations below a latitude of 66.5 degrees south (Antarctic Polar Circle) receive 24 hours of daylight. According to the website's Sunrise and Sunset calculator, the Philadelphia region will see …
angel
2:53 pm on Saturday, December 22, 2012
Yeay, here comes the SON:) more ›