Bundle up tight; the evening of December 21 is the winter solstice — the longest night of the year and the astronomical start of winter.
Although December 1 is often referred to as the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere for meteorological purposes, astronomers hold that winter begins on December 21, the “shortest” day of the year in terms of daylight.
More precisely, the wintery season is ushered in by the Sun aligning with the Tropic of Capricorn at 9:27 p.m. At this moment, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted the farthest away from its closest star, and yet the Earth itself is the closest to it in terms of its orbit. Simultaneously, the Southern Hemisphere, tilted closest to the Sun, is experiencing its summer solstice.
As the Earth continues its revolution around its brightest star, the Sun will appear to advance northward for residents of the Northern Hemisphere until the astronomical seasons change again and the summer solstice arrives on June 20.
Currently, the Sun is rising and setting in the southernmost portion of the sky — southeast to southwest — and thus bringing very few daylight hours. North Texas cities will see fewer than 10 hours of daylight on December 21, while those farther south will see slightly more, with Corpus Christi expected to have 10.5 hours of sunlight.
This isn’t too terrible compared to Barrow, the northernmost town in Alaska, which will have no daylight until late January.
North Texas residents may not be able to benefit entirely from the few daylight hours it has on Thursday due to cloudy skies.
Meteorologists predict rain chances for both Thursday and Friday, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. Temperature highs will hover around the 60s, while some light rain might build into isolated storms after nightfall, especially on the west side of the metroplex.
