21/06/2021
๐๐Tomorrow, Monday 21 June, is the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. It marks the shortest day of the year. This means from now until this year's summer solstice on the 22 December, days will start getting longer.
Hours of daylight depend on your latitude or how far north or south you are. For places like Darwin, near the equator, the amount of daylight hours changes little with the seasons. In Hobart during the winter daylight hours are brief, some might say too brief. Hobart will see 2 hours and 21 minutes less daylight than Darwin on 21 June.
The solstices are the two times each year when the tilt in Earth's axis lines up most with the direction of the Sun, creating the maximum difference between daylight and nighttime hours. It's also when the seasonal movement of the Sun's daily path (as seen from earth) reaches a northern or southern limit at noon, before gradually changing direction, moving back towards the other limit.
Did you know the word 'solstice' comes from Latin? Owing to the Sun appearing to come to a 'standstill' in the sky when it reaches the Tropic of Cancer. The word 'solstitium' is a blend of the words sol (meaning 'sun') and sistere (meaning to 'standstill').
Read more about solstices in our blog: http://ow.ly/8yIT50Fd6jW
