Winter Countdown 2026

Winter 2026 begins at the December solstice, the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. Depending on the year it falls on 21 or 22 December. The countdown above targets the exact astronomical instant.

The shortest day, but not the latest sunrise. This is the solstice paradox: the darkest morning comes in early January, and the earliest sunset has already passed in mid-December. The cause is the equation of time — the Earth's orbit is an ellipse and its axis is tilted, so solar noon drifts by several minutes across the year. The solstice marks only the minimum length of daylight, not the extremes of sunrise and sunset.

After it, the days lengthen — imperceptibly at first, a few seconds a day, then faster towards the March equinox.

The coldest weather is still ahead. As with the summer heat, temperature lags: January and February are colder than December, while the ground and the seas finish giving up their stored warmth.

The solstice falls only days before Christmas, and midwinter festivals settled on this turning of the light long before they carried their present names.