I Survived the Shortest Day of the Year

I was very quiet about yesterday at it approached. It is one of those days that I try to forget about and just get it behind me.

But I am now celebrating, sort of.

Winter began officially at 5:23 PM EST last evening. I was on U.S. 1 driving to celebrate happy hour with friends when the event occurred. It slipped in unnoticed. I do not celebrate the arrival of Winter.

The arrival of Winter means that yesterday was the shortest day of the year. In Baltimore we had 9 hours 24 minutes and 1 second of daylight. Today will be all of 1 second longer.

In Ithaca, NY, they only had 9h 4m 4s of daylight. 

In Charlottesville, VA, the day was 9h 31m 26s long. 

In Key West, FL, it was 10h 36m 57s.

St Kilda Beach, Melbourne

In Melbourne, Australia, conversely, they are blessed with 14h 47m 27s of daylight today (because it was already today when Summer arrived there). It could be a beach day, but the high today is only going be 74 degrees. Thursday looks like a great day though with a high of 95 degrees and partly sunny skies.

So why am I celebrating? The dark season is half over! Days grow longer in the Northern Hemisphere from now until the next solstice in June! Summer is less than half a year away again!

That is a cause for celebration.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD