The first day of winter dates for the coming years
| Event | Date (US Eastern) | Weekday | Exact moment |
|---|---|---|---|
| December solstice 2026 | December 21, 2026 | Monday | December 21, 2026, 20:50 UTC |
| December solstice 2027 | December 21, 2027 | Tuesday | December 22, 2027, 02:42 UTC |
| December solstice 2028 | December 21, 2028 | Thursday | December 21, 2028, 08:20 UTC |
| December solstice 2029 | December 21, 2029 | Friday | December 21, 2029, 14:14 UTC |
| December solstice 2030 | December 21, 2030 | Saturday | December 21, 2030, 20:10 UTC |
| December solstice 2031 | December 21, 2031 | Sunday | December 22, 2031, 01:56 UTC |
| December solstice 2032 | December 21, 2032 | Tuesday | December 21, 2032, 07:56 UTC |
Why the date moves between December 21 and 22
A calendar year is 365 days, but the Earth takes about 365 days and 6 hours to go round the Sun. So each solstice comes about six hours later than the year before, until a leap day pulls it back. The exact moment is the same everywhere on Earth, but the calendar date depends on your time zone: the 2027 solstice, at 02:42 UTC on December 22, is still the evening of December 21 in the Americas.
The dates in the table are for US Eastern time. Use the “Exact moment” column to work out the date where you are.
The shortest day of the year
On the December solstice the Sun follows its lowest path across the sky in the Northern Hemisphere, giving the shortest day and longest night. From the next day, daylight starts to grow again, slowly at first. The earliest sunset, though, comes a couple of weeks before the solstice, and the latest sunrise a couple of weeks after it.
Astronomical and meteorological winter
Weather services use meteorological seasons, which follow whole months to keep records simple: meteorological winter is December, January and February, so it starts on December 1. In the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed, and the December solstice is the first day of summer.