Megan's Nature Nook
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For those of you who aren’t a big fan of the shorter, darker days we have this time of year, you can start rejoicing because the Winter Solstice is near! The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year; the day with the least amount of daylight. Since June 21st (Summer Solstice), the amount of daylight has been decreasing day by day. Now that we have reached the Winter Solstice, we can start looking forward to the amount of daylight increasing, and our days getting longer! For those of you like my mom, who don’t enjoy the dwindling amount of daylight, this is a welcome change! The Winter Solstice also the official first day of winter – let the snow begin! The Winter Solstice will occur at 10:28 am (Central Time) on Thursday, December 21, 2017. It will happen at this same instant all over Earth. At this exact moment, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted the farthest away from the sun. The Winter Solstice is most often on the 21st of December, but can occur on the 20, 21, 22, or 23rd. The time of day changes depending on the year. On Thursday, December 21, 2017, Red Wing, Minnesota will have eight hours and 49 minutes of daylight compared to Thursday, June 21, 2017, when Red Wing had 15 hours and 34 minutes of daylight. That is 6 hours and 45 minutes difference of light!! Ever feel like you are more productive in the summer? Maybe that’s why! Here is a neat Yearly Sun Graph that shows the day lengths for the year: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/red-wing Climatologist Brian Brettschneider has some really cool weather maps on his Climate Blog, two of them are shown below. It really is quite amazing to think about the difference in daylight that six months can make! Starting on Thursday we will start making our way to those brighter, longer (maybe more productive) days! In the meantime, happy winter!
1 Comment
Julie Birk-Betcher
12/19/2017 08:41:49 pm
Bring on the light!
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