Happy Winter Solstice: It's Australia's Shortest Day of the Year

Does today feel a little darker and gloomier than usual?

That's because it's officially Australia's shortest day of the year—our winter solstice.

Why is that a thing? Well it's because the earth is a little wonky on its axis and, instead of rotating vertically, the planet is tilted at 23 degrees.

That's what gives us our four seasons—as the earth completes one lap around the sun each year, different parts of the planet are tilted towards our great big ball of fire and receive different amounts of sunlight.

Tilted towards the sun = warm days, short nights = summer!

Tilted away from the sun = cool temperatures, long nights = winter.

On winter solstice, the southern hemisphere is tilted the furthest point away from the sun which means we experience the darkest 24-hour period of the year.

And if you're in Hobart, Sydney or Canberra, you might want to consider a Vitamin D supplement because it's an especially short day for you. The sun is likely to set before 5pm this afternoon which is just nine hours of sunshine!

"The further from the equator you are, the more the difference is," Tim Bedding, an astronomer at the University of Sydney, told the ABC.

"If you're in northern Queensland, you probably won't even notice a difference, but if you live in Tasmania, you will definitely notice a big difference."

Spare a thought for our pals in the South Pole though, where they experience what's called 'polar night'.

Sound bleak? That's because it is. No sunset or sunrise from around March til September.

"The sun doesn't even get above the horizon, it's night for 24 hours," Professor Bedding said.

In some good news, the winter solstice means we're officially on the climb back to summer! In less good news, we can't get too excited just yet because we still have July to shiver through—typically our coldest month of the year thanks to a thing called 'seasonal lag'.

"There's a delay because the earth takes a while to cool down and heat up again," Professor Bedding said.

Don't put your winter coats away just yet. 

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