The winter solstice is on Monday, December 21, 2026, at 3:50 PM Eastern. It's the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Seattle gets 8 hours 25 minutes of daylight that day; Miami gets 10 hours 32 minutes.
Time zone
Solstice time
Eastern
3:50 PM
Central
2:50 PM
Mountain
1:50 PM
Pacific
12:50 PM
Alaska
11:50 AM
Hawaii
10:50 AM
The solstice is a moment, not a day: 20:50 UTC, from the US Naval Observatory. In every US time zone it falls on December 21.
What the winter solstice is
The Earth's axis is tilted, so for half the year the North Pole leans away from the sun. The solstice is the moment it leans furthest away. The sun's midday height is at its lowest of the year, and it spends the fewest hours above the horizon.
At the solstice, the North Pole leans furthest from the sun
So the midday sun sits low: 26° above the horizon in New York on December 21, against 73° on June 21.
Midday sun heights calculated by DaySight. The Earth's axis is tilted 23.4°.
The name means the sun standing still: Latin sol, sun, and sistere, to stand still, according to the Paris Observatory's dictionary of astronomy. For six months the midday sun has been getting lower in the sky. At the solstice it stops sinking and starts to climb again.
In the Southern Hemisphere the same moment is the summer solstice and the longest day.
How short the day is in your city
The further north, the shorter the day. Anchorage gets under 5 and a half hours of daylight; Honolulu gets nearly 11.
Anchorage's December day is under a third of its June day
Hours from sunrise to sunset on December 21 and June 21, 2026. Anchorage: 5 h 27 min against 19 h 22 min.
December 21June 21
Source: DaySight, calculated from the sun's position for each city.
Every city's sunrise, sunset, first light and last light on the day are in the shortest day of the year. For your own place, see sunrise and sunset times by city.
The earliest sunset isn't on the solstice
The solstice has the least daylight, but not the earliest sunset or the latest sunrise. In most of the US the earliest sunset comes in early December and the latest sunrise in early January.
New York's sunset turns later 13 days before the solstice
Clock times of sunset and sunrise, November 15 to January 31. The line marks the solstice, December 21. Sunrise keeps getting later until Dec 31.
Source: DaySight, calculated from the sun's position for each city.
Solar noon, the moment the sun is highest, isn't fixed at the same clock time. Around the solstice it moves a little later each day, so sunrise and sunset move later too. Before the solstice, sunset is already getting later while the day keeps shrinking because sunrise is getting later faster. The University of Connecticut's explainer on the equation of time covers the astronomy.
What that means in practice: evenings start getting lighter in early December (late November in Florida). Mornings keep getting darker until late December or early January. The dates for each city are in when do the days start getting longer.
How fast the light comes back
Slowly at first. On December 22 the day is the same length as on December 21, give or take a second. The gain then builds:
By January 31, Seattle has 1 h 5 min more daylight
Daylight gained since the solstice, sunrise to sunset, December 21, 2026 to March 20, 2027.
AnchorageSeattleNew YorkMiami
Source: DaySight, calculated from the sun's position for each city.
The more daylight a place loses by December, the faster it gets it back. How much you gain each day, and when you get your first extra hour, is in when do the days start getting longer.
First light comes before sunrise
The day starts before the sun comes up. First light is when the sky is bright enough to see by without lamps; astronomers call it civil dawn. On the solstice it comes 31 minutes before sunrise in New York, 37 in Seattle and 62 in Anchorage.
Seattle, December 21. First light at 7:19 AM, while the sun is still 6° below the horizon; sunrise at 7:56 AM.
Light and dark have the biggest influence on your body clock, according to the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences. In Seattle on the solstice, first light and last light add 1 hour 13 minutes to the 8 hours 25 minutes between sunrise and sunset. More in morning sunlight.
Is the winter solstice the first day of winter?
It depends who you ask. Astronomical winter starts at the solstice. Meteorological winter, which weather services use for records, is December, January and February, so it starts on December 1. NOAA explains the difference in meteorological versus astronomical seasons.
Next winter solstice
Tuesday, December 21, 2027, at 9:42 PM Eastern (December 22 at 02:42 UTC). The longest day in between is June 21, 2027. See the longest day of the year.