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Winter Solstice 2013 - Saturday, December 21st - It's Now Officially Winter

21st December 2013

With the weather we have been having lately, a succession of storms in the UK, snow in the north of the UK just days ago, snow falling in much of the USA in the last few days including Texas and Hawaii, and even snow in Egypt last week, it feels a little odd to be writing about the fact the Winter officially starts today.

Today, Saturday the 21st of December is Winter Solstice, the official start date of  Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Today is also the shortest day of the year, from here on until Summer Solstice on June 21st 2014, the days will become longer.

Winter Solstice actually occurs at 17:11 today. This is the point when the sun is shining farthest to the south, directly over the Tropic of Capricorn.

Although today is officially the start of Winter, Meteorologists consider the Winter to have started three weeks ago on December the 1st. This is because December, January and February are the three coldest months.

This time last year many people were wondering if the world was about to end. The Mayan calendar supposedly said the world would end on Dec. 21, 2012. Let's hope they weren't a year out on their calculations.

Enjoy Winter, keep safe and warm and look forwards to longer days.

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