Astronomical winter officially begins today, on the winter solstice, but what does that mean?

While the winter solstice is widely known as the shortest day of the year, did you know that it actually happens at a precise time in the day, but not at the same time every year?

This year the winter solstice in New York City, for example, was at 10:03 a.m. ET. In terms of daylight, this day is a whopping 8 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the June solstice.

This means our days will now get longer and lighter!

The winter solstice may also not occur on the same date. Although December 21st is the most common, it can happen anytime between December 20th-23rd. Last year, the winter solstice occurred at 10:27 pm on December 21st instead. The last winter solstice on December 23rd was in 1903. This date won't happen again until 2303.

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