Although there’s been plenty of cold and snow so far this month, winter officially begins tonight at 11:19 p.m.
The Winter Solstice marks the "shortest" day of the year in New England. In Boston there’s just 9 hours and 4 minutes of daylight.
Even though today is the darkest day of the year, our earliest sunsets of the year have already happened. In early December the sunset was 4:11 p.m., but today we’re already back to 4:14 p.m. It will take until early February to get the 5 p.m. sunsets back, however.
In the morning sunrises are still getting a bit later. Today the sunrise is 7:09 a.m., but later this month it will get as late as 7:13 a.m.
On the solstice the sun’s rays directly strike the Tropic of Capricorn. That’s the southern most point that happens all year.
It’s worth noting that according to climate, the coldest days of the season are still ahead of us here in New England. Usually the coldest part of winter is in January.
