Today is the winter solstice, the day in the year with the shortest hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere. At exactly 9.21am GMT the moment of the solstice happens, when the North Pole reaches its furthest tilt away from the sun, thanks to the Earth leaning 23.4 degrees on its axis. At the same time on the other side of the world, the South Pole reaches its maximum tilt towards the sun in the southern hemisphere’s summer solstice. This is also the day in the northern hemisphere when shadows reach their longest at noon, as the sun reaches its lowest position in the sky for the year, and the sun reaches its furthest south at noon.
Strangely, today does not have the earliest sunset,