LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Christmas is almost here, which also means that it's almost time for the 2024 winter solstice.
The winter solstice, which marks the official start of winter will be happening on Saturday, December 21, 2024. This is when the sun's rays shine directly over the Tropic of Capricorn.
What time will the winter solstice occur?
The solstice is not an all-day event, but it will be happening during the overnight hours at about 3:21 a.m. on Saturday.
What does the winter solstice signify?
For people in the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year.
Little Rock's day length on December 21 will be about 9 hours, 21 minutes and 27 seconds long. This is a lot different in comparison to the nearly 14 hours and a half hours of day length during the summer solstice which happens in June.
What happens during the fall and winter months?
The fall and winter months are known for early sunsets. The earliest sunset of the year actually happens in early December.
Daylight Saving Time ending in November is also a contributing facto to those early sunsets, and there's been a lot of discussion around what it would look like if we shifted to permanent Standard Time.
How would permanent Standard Time would impact Little Rock?
If clocks stayed the same after March, then people in Little Rock would never see an 8:00 p.m. sunset. Instead, sunsets would happen at around 7:00 p.m. during the summer months.
The earliest sunrise in the summer would occur just before 5:00 a.m., and the latest sunrise would occur just before 6:00 a.m.
If we compare this to the winter months, sunrise times would occur between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.
However, the silver lining is that the sun wouldn't set until sometime between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.