Solstice time '€” enjoy 16 seconds more daylight today

MAT-SU — Things will be brightening up for Alaskans.

Monday marked the winter solstice as the darkest day of the year. Starting today, the sun will begin to set a little later and rise a little earlier each day.

“This Monday is the shortest day of the year and is the point in Earth’s rotation around the sun where the North Pole is as far away from sun as possible,” said Jason Ginter of the Marie Drake Planetarium in Juneau.

It is also the day where the sun reaches its lowest point in the horizon, said University of Alaska Anchorage professor Travis Rector.

The world “solstice” comes from the Latin translation of “sun stands still” and describes the effect of the sun rising and lowering in what appears to be the same place on the horizon, according to National Geographic.

“Today we have exactly five hours and 28 minutes of sunlight,” said hydro meteorological technician Dave Stricklan of the Anchorage office of the National Weather Service. “And as of 8:47 a.m. this morning (Monday) we started gaining seconds of sunlight.”

Stricklan said Alaska will gain 16 seconds of sunlight today.

“From here we will gain a few more seconds of sunlight every day on a increasing scale,” he said.

Although we’ve turned the corner on winter, Rector says people shouldn’t get overly excited.

“The progressive addition of sunlight each day will only increase up to five minutes of sunlight a day by the end January,” he said.

The gains in sunlight will be minimal until the equinox in March, Ginter said. Then we will have 12 hours of sunlight and should continue to gain around five to eight minutes of sunlight a day.

Although the gain is slow initially, some people will be celebrating the change.

“Yeah, I know a couple of people that will be having bonfires and parties to celebrate,” Ginter said.

Celebrations for solstice are not uncommon as some bars will host parties and have live music for the change, he said. And if you decide to join in on the festivities this winter solstice, you will be doing nothing more than carrying on a tradition that dates back many years.

“Germanic peoples of Northern Europe honored the winter solstice with Yule festivals — the origin of the still-standing tradition of the long-burning Yule log,” reports National Geographic News.

The Romans and many other cultures also marked the solstice, including the Mayans, whose calendar famously ends on the winter solstice of 2012. Some have interpreted this as marking a dramatic change in the Earth that some believe will mean the end of the world.

Whatever you believe, you can be comfortable that sunlight will increase each day until the summer solstice on June 21, when the darkness will again start creeping in.

Contact Lanier Hutcheson at lanier.hutcheson@frontiersman.com or 352-2265.

LEARN MORE

For information on daily sunlight gains, visit the Alaska National Weather Service website at www.arh.noaa.gov, then select “climate report” and click on your area of Alaska.