Winter 2025 officially begins: The December solstice marks the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere
The December solstice marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere as the Sun takes its shortest trip across the sky. This year, the solstice occurs at 10:03 a.m. on Sunday, December 22, 2025.
By Tony Rice, NASA Ambassador
At 10:03 a.m. on Sunday, the sun was directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5° south latitude, marking the December solstice and the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the point where the Sun's path across the sky is at its shortest, resulting in the longest night of the year.
The Sun's shortest path through the sky on this day reached just 31 degrees above the horizon, compared to nearly 78 degrees above the horizon during the June solstice. This means the Sun was above the horizon for only 9 hours and 44 minutes, making it the longest night of the year.
The latest sunrise was on November 1 at 7:37 a.m., but without the end of daylight saving time, sunrise would continue to creep later until the first week of January. Sunset has been creeping later since December 5, when it dipped below the horizon at 5 p.m. We won't see a 6 p.m. sunset until February 19, and the first sunrise happens before 7 a.m. two days earlier.
The low arc of the Sun is a direct result of Earth's axial tilt. Because the Northern Hemisphere is angled away from the Sun, sunlight strikes the ground at a lower angle, spreading the same energy over a larger area. This is why winter days are cooler, even though Earth is actually slightly closer to the Sun in December.
The Sun's path on the December solstice depends on your latitude. In the mid-latitudes like most of the U.S. and Europe, the Sun stays low all day, and shadows are long even at noon. Near the Arctic Circle, the Sun barely rises or does not rise at all, resulting in polar night.
Residents in the Southern Hemisphere experience the opposite, where the December solstice brings the start of summer. Sydney, along with much of New South Wales, is under a heatwave warning with temperatures reaching 34º C (93º F) on Sunday. A break is forecasted by Christmas Day with a cooldown to the mid-20s C (mid-70s F).
The Sun's path has been tracked for thousands of years. Ancient monuments, calendars, and observatories from Stonehenge in England and the Goseck Circle in Germany to the Jantar Mantar in India and Machu Picchu in Peru all measure solstices and equinoxes for agricultural and religious purposes. The Intihuatana stone, or 'Hitching Post of the Sun', was used by the Inca to measure solstices and equinoxes.
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