When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, residents of areas on that part of the planet have summer while residents below the equator are experiencing winter. This is one of the reasons why the seasons on Earth seem to be reversed between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The Earth is tilted it does not face the sun upright, instead our planet lies at a 23.5⁰ angle. For the polar regions, the solstice will leave them in darkness for more than 24 hours. There are even places that will see no sunrise at all, like Barrow, Alaska. For example, Glasgow, Scotland will experience approximately seven hours of daylight Fairbanks, Alaska will only experience a meager four hours of daylight, as the sun will barely peek over the southern horizon there. In spots farther north, the days will be markedly shorter. This year in Tucson we can expect just over 10 hours of daylight. The Winter Solstice is the day with the fewest hours of sunlight and the longest night. 21 at 9:19 p.m., although it varies from year to year and can occur anywhere between Dec. The first day of winter is called the winter solstice and it’s an astronomical event which occurs this year in Arizona on Dec. The shortest day of the year is the first day of winter, after which the days get progressively longer. It’s common to think that the days get shorter in the winter, but the opposite is true.

Winter equinox