Overview
- The solstice occurs Sunday, Dec. 21 at 9:03 a.m. Central Standard Time, which is 10:03 a.m. Eastern and 3:03 p.m. UTC.
- It brings the year's fewest hours of daylight and the longest night, after which daylight begins to increase each day.
- At the moment of the solstice, the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn near 23.5 degrees south latitude.
- The earliest sunset has already happened this month, as the solstice does not coincide with the earliest sunset or latest sunrise due to Earth's orbital dynamics.
- Daylight on that day totals about 7 hours 49 minutes 42 seconds in London and just under 9 hours 11 minutes in Chicago, with the year's longest noontime shadows.