How many days until winter?

When does winter start?

Astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere begins at the December solstice, usually on December 21 or 22, and ends at the March equinox. Meteorological winter covers December, January and February. In the Southern Hemisphere, the December solstice marks the start of summer.

The winter solstice

The December solstice is the moment when the North Pole is tilted farthest from the Sun. It brings the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere: about 9 hours and 15 minutes of daylight in New York, around 6 hours in Stockholm, and none at all north of the Arctic Circle. The Sun is directly overhead at noon along the Tropic of Capricorn. After the solstice, the days slowly start getting longer again, though the coldest weather usually comes weeks later, in January and February, because land and oceans take time to cool.

Interestingly, the earliest sunset of the year comes a couple of weeks before the solstice and the latest sunrise a couple of weeks after it, because of the Earth's tilted axis and elliptical orbit.

Solstice celebrations through history

• Newgrange, Ireland: this 5,000-year-old passage tomb is aligned so that sunlight floods its inner chamber at sunrise around the winter solstice.
• Saturnalia: the Roman midwinter festival of feasting and gift-giving in mid-December.
• Yule: the Germanic midwinter festival that gave us the Yule log and the word "Yuletide".
• Dongzhi: the Chinese winter solstice festival, when families eat tangyuan rice balls.
• Shab-e Yalda: the Persian celebration of the longest night, with pomegranates, watermelon and poetry.

Winter holidays

The solstice sits in the middle of a cluster of celebrations, from Hanukkah and Christmas to Kwanzaa and New Year. It's also a good time to prepare for winter weather: check heating, keep an emergency kit in the car, and plan travel around holiday crowds.