With nights stretching longer and the chill deepening by the day, the 2025 winter solstice is almost here.

The winter solstice brings the year’s shortest day, the fewest hours of sunlight and a night that lasts the longest.

In 2025, the winter solstice takes place Sunday, Dec. 21 at 10:03 a.m. EST — the exact moment the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest from the Sun. (RELATED: Tsunami Waves Spotted After Magnitude 7.6 Earthquake Rocks Coast Of Japan)

In cities such as Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Houston, people will get three to four fewer hours of daylight. New York City and Chicago will lose about six hours, while Seattle, Portland and Minneapolis will see around a seven hour loss of daylight.

The exact date of the winter solstice can shift by a day or two, depending on the precise timing of Earth’s full orbit around the Sun. This explains why a leap day exists every four years.

From Miami to Seattle, daylight has been shrinking since June. Ahead of the winter solstice in two weeks, here’s how much daylight you’ve lost to later sunrises and longer nights. https://t.co/lq0SPYuXhw pic.twitter.com/6sL4Rk55Z2

— AccuWeather (@accuweather) December 7, 2025

Meteorologists and climatologists officially start winter Dec. 1 for record-keeping purposes, but in the astronomical calendar, winter truly begins at the moment of the winter solstice.

Astronomical seasons are determined by the location of Earth to the Sun as the globe completes its yearly orbit around the nearest star.

Astronomers mark the winter solstice as the official start of winter because Earth’s 23.5-degree axial tilt points the Northern Hemisphere farthest from the Sun, delivering the year’s least direct sunlight, while the Southern Hemisphere receives the most.