December 21st. Sun came up at 5am and will go down sometime around 10pm, maybe later.
Advantage of being 46 degrees south!
Advantage of being 46 degrees south!
Happy shortest/longest day everyone!
- Thread starter Candlelight
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^ Cutest avatar. 
What a relief to have reached the shortest day for us Northern folks. I'm looking foward to getting out in the evenings to do some running. I'm not looking forward to those long, dead months of winter ahead though, even if the days will be geting longer.
What a relief to have reached the shortest day for us Northern folks. I'm looking foward to getting out in the evenings to do some running. I'm not looking forward to those long, dead months of winter ahead though, even if the days will be geting longer.
The future looks brighter already. 
'tis the Solstice to be jolly, fah lah lah lah lah, lah lah lah lahhhh.
I find the winter solstice to be quite a sad day, as the days have now stopped drawing in. If only the nights would remain this long and dark. I really should move to Norway.
I've seen videos of Norway's wintertime. Half of the country is in the arctic circle, so some days, the sun never rises above the horizon, so isn't visible. And midday is twilight at best.
It's dead in the winter up here in New Hampshire's North Country. A nice blanket of powder type snow all over the foothills of the White Mountains along the Connecticut River valley. We got more snow coming later today. The sunrise was at 7:20 am and the sunset is at 4:12. It gets dark fast early since it has been overcast often lately.
It gets dark fast early since it has been overcast often lately.
Shortest for me.
A "balmy" 8 degrees outside today.
A "balmy" 8 degrees outside today.
Excellent. The darkest day of the year.
Interestingly, there was an article about that yesterday in my local newspaper. It's only the shortest day of the year, the actual "darkest day" of the year is something completely different. It didn't elaborate though
Excellent. The darkest day of the year.
Interestingly, there was an article about that yesterday in my local newspaper. It's only the shortest day of the year, the actual "darkest day" of the year is something completely different. It didn't elaborate though
Lemme guess, your birthday?
Excellent. The darkest day of the year.
Interestingly, there was an article about that yesterday in my local newspaper. It's only the shortest day of the year, the actual "darkest day" of the year is something completely different. It didn't elaborate though
Hmm. I think your newspaper was mistaken--though there's more to this issue than meets the eye.
According to this page, provided by the Otter Creek Observatory in Kentucky, the winter solstice really is the darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, i.e. the shortest day, and the longest night.
But, interestingly, it's not the day of the darkest morning, or the darkest evening.
The darkest evening (i.e. the day with the earliest sunset) actually falls before the solstice, while the darkest morning (i.e. the day with the latest sunrise) falls afterward.
Judging from my own experience of being interviewed by newspaper reporters, I'm willing to bet that your local paper simply garbled some astronomer's attempt to explain this distinction.
We're at latitude 42 degrees North. Not too far up, but it's still cold -- about -2F/-19C now. We actually get a lot of sun in winter; Canadian systems like we're having right now (so-called "Alberta Clipper") are cold, because they're clear -- and windy.
December is the month in Chicagoland for Alberta Clippers. A clipper can drop the temperature by 30 degrees F in a very short time; it's a fast system.
December is the month in Chicagoland for Alberta Clippers. A clipper can drop the temperature by 30 degrees F in a very short time; it's a fast system.
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