Winter Solstice - TODAY - Shortest Day of the Year!

At 7:04 am Eastern Time, the Winter Solstice arrived. One of the things that makes winter more bearable for me, living in a relatively cold climate here in Washington, D.C. (hey, it's in the teens tonight!), is the fact the first day of winter is also the day during which we get the least sunlight here in the Northern Hemisphere. That means from here on in, until the Summer Solstice in six months, the daylight will last longer and longer each day, starting a little earlier and ending a little later every single day. So, it might get even colder over the next few months, but at least we'll get a little more daylight every day!

The image here shows the path that the sun took through the sky the whole winter solstice in 2006. We are here looking down the Tyrrhenian Sea coast from Santa Severa toward Fiumicino, Italy. It was taken by Danilo Pivato. See http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071222.html.