A solstice is the moment each year when the Sun reaches its farthest point north or south in the sky. In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice brings the shortest day of the year, and the summer solstice brings the longest. The next winter solstice is Monday, December 21, 2026, and the next summer solstice is Monday, June 21, 2027.
Solstice dates
| Year | June solstice (summer in the north) | December solstice (winter in the north) |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Sunday, June 21 | Monday, December 21 |
| 2027 | Monday, June 21 | Tuesday, December 21 |
Dates are for US Eastern time. The solstice is a precise instant, so depending on your time zone it can fall on June 20 or 21, or December 21 or 22. In the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed: the June solstice is their shortest day. Count down with days until winter or days until summer.
What actually happens at a solstice
The Earth's axis is tilted about 23.4° relative to its orbit. As we circle the Sun, first the Northern Hemisphere and then the Southern leans toward it.
- At the June solstice, the North Pole is tilted most toward the Sun. The Sun is directly overhead at noon along the Tropic of Cancer (about 23.4° N), and everywhere north of the Arctic Circle has 24 hours of daylight.
- At the December solstice, the South Pole is tilted most toward the Sun. The Sun is overhead along the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Arctic has 24 hours of darkness.
"Solstice" comes from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still): for a few days around the solstice, the Sun's noon height barely changes, as if it pauses before reversing direction. The halfway points between solstices are the equinoxes. See when do the seasons start.
How much daylight do you get?
Day length at the solstices depends heavily on latitude. Approximate figures:
| City | Daylight at June solstice | Daylight at December solstice |
|---|---|---|
| Anchorage, AK | about 19½ hours | about 5½ hours |
| Seattle, WA | about 16 hours | about 8½ hours |
| New York, NY | about 15 hours | about 9¼ hours |
| Los Angeles, CA | about 14½ hours | about 10 hours |
| Miami, FL | about 13¾ hours | about 10½ hours |
| Honolulu, HI | about 13¼ hours | about 11 hours |
The farther you are from the equator, the bigger the swing. At the equator itself, days are close to 12 hours all year.
Why the earliest sunset isn't on the shortest day
You might expect the earliest sunset and latest sunrise to both fall on the winter solstice. They don't. In most of the US, the earliest sunsets come in early December, and the latest sunrises come in early January, while the shortest total day is on the solstice in between.
The reason is the "equation of time": because the Earth's orbit is an ellipse and its axis is tilted, solar noon, when the Sun is highest, drifts later by about half a minute a day in December. That shifts both sunrise and sunset later, so evenings start getting longer weeks before mornings do. The same effect happens in reverse around the June solstice: the earliest sunrises come in mid-June and the latest sunsets in late June.
After the solstice: how fast days change
Day length changes slowly near the solstices and fastest near the equinoxes. In New York, the days grow by only a few seconds a day in the week after the December solstice, but by around 2½ minutes a day by mid-March. By the end of January, New York has already gained roughly 50 minutes of daylight compared with the solstice.
Solstice celebrations
- Stonehenge in England is aligned with the solstice sunrise and sunset, and thousands gather there each June and December.
- Yule, the midwinter festival of northern Europe, gave Christmas many of its customs, including the Yule log and evergreen decorations.
- Midsummer is a major holiday in Sweden and Finland, celebrated with maypoles, bonfires and long light evenings.
- Dongzhi, the winter solstice festival in China and East Asia, is celebrated with family meals of dumplings or tangyuan rice balls.
- Inti Raymi, the Inca festival of the Sun, is held in Cusco, Peru, around the June solstice, which is midwinter there.
Plan around the light: photographers love the long golden hours of June. For night-sky watching, pair the long December nights with the moon phase calendar to find dark, moonless evenings.
Frequently asked questions
Is the winter solstice the shortest day of the year?
Yes, in the Northern Hemisphere it has the least daylight. In the Southern Hemisphere it's the longest day.
When is the longest day of 2027?
Monday, June 21, 2027, the June solstice.
Do days start getting longer right after the winter solstice?
Yes, but only by seconds at first. The gain speeds up through January and February.