The winter solstice, happening at 10:03 a.m. the morning of the 21st, marks when the sun shines directly over the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere and the Earth’s northern axis points away from the sun. It’s the shortest day of the year for everyone in the northern hemisphere.
With the sun rising at 8:10 a.m. and setting at 5:11 p.m., Grand Rapids only sees 9 hours of daylight.
In the Arctic Circle, the sun is down all day long. It’s called Polar Night with no daylight at all for 24 hours at a latitude of 66.5 degrees north. Night gets even longer the further north you go – the North Pole has been in the dark since September, and the sun won’t come up again until March…