Winter Solstice

Sunrise: 10:14 a.m.
Sunset: 3:41 p.m.
Total daylight: 5 hr 46 min

Today is the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year around the northern hemisphere, and definitely the least light I've seen in a single day by a long shot. The winter solstice is an interesting day here in Alaska, and has a significance much different than for those in other locations.

First day of winter? Everyone sort of chuckles when anyone refers to the solstice as the first day of winter. We've been in winter since, some would argue, late September. Winter will, however, continue for many months to come. We have had a huge dump of snow in the last couple of days, though, maybe in honor of the solstice? The snow is very exciting, and will be even more so once they get around to grooming the cross country trails in town.

First day of spring? In a way, the winter solstice can be thought of as the first day of spring. After today, we begin gaining a little light every day. This gain will peak around the end of January/beginning of February, when we'll be gaining more than 5 minutes of daylight each day! The cold really hasn't bothered me that much thus far, but the darkness (get up when it's pitch dark every day, it's pitch dark when you leave work) is really starting to get annoying. I'm celebrating the solstice as the beginning of the end of the darkness.

Some point out, however, that thinking of the winter solstice as the first day of spring sort of means you gotta think of the summer solstice (my birthday!) as the first day of winter (or at least autumn). But let's not think about that.

UPDATE: Here's a little mini-article from the Anchorage Daily News about the solstice, along with a cool graphic and a cool photo -- the sun doesn't get much higher above our surrounding mountains than it is in that photo. I took this photo in Talkeetna that also depicts, as my co-clerk says, our "not-so-high-noon."