The date and time of the winter solstice The exact date varies from year to year and may occur between the 20th and 23rd of December. Year Winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (UT) 1999 DEC-22 @ 07:44 2000 DEC-21 @ 13:37 2001 DEC-21 @ 19:21 2002 DEC-22 @ 01:14 2003 DEC-22 @ 07:03 2004 DEC-21 @ 12:41 2005 DEC-21 @ 18:30 2006 DEC-22 @ 00:20 2007 DEC-22 @ 06:09 2008 DEC-21 @ 11:59 2009 DEC-21 @ 17:49 2010 DEC-21 @ 23:38 The above dates and times from 1999 to 2003 are as accurate as the astronomical calculations on The Dome of the Sky web site. 11 The dates and times for 2004 and afterwards were taken from Eric Weisstein's Treasure Trove of Astronomy. 13 The latter are based on the Scientific Astronomer computer program which typically gives times that differ up to 15 minutes from the calculations of the U.S. Naval Observatory. An online "Easy Date Converter" calculates the dates and times of the equinoxes and solstices within 20 seconds. 19 Times are in UT (Universal Time). This used to be called Greenwich Mean Time or GMT. In North America, you can find your local time by subtracting:
3 hours 30 minutes for Newfoundland time
4 hours for ATL
5 hours for EST
6 hours for CST
7 hours for MST
8 hours for PST
9 hours for ALA
10 hours for HAW The winter solstice for 1999 was rather special. It involved the coincidence of the solstice, full moon and lunar perigee on the same date. (The moon's orbit around the earth is not circular; it is elliptical. "Perigee" simply means the point in the moon's orbit where it is closest to earth.) At this solstice, the moon was both full and at its maximum size (about 14% larger that at its minimum size). The last time that this happened was in 1866. The following full moon on 2000-JAN-21 was also unusual - it was eclipsed by the earth's shadow. |