When Does It Start Getting Lighter In The Evenings? Winter Solstice ...

When does it start getting lighter in the evenings? Winter solstice 2021 explained

Day after day of sunless mornings and pitch black early evenings is what winters are all about, especially as we get closer to the Winter Solstice. But when does it start getting lighter again?

CommentsNewsMalvika Padin Newsletter Lead 13:46, 15 Dec 2021Updated 13:47, 15 Dec 2021

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Winters are filled with dark days that get shorter and shorter as we get to end of the year.

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While there’s not much you can do about the seemingly never ending dullness, it does eventually get brighter.

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But before it gets lighter it will get darker until the shortest day of the year, otherwise known as the winter solstice, which happens this year on December 21.

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Once we’re past the winter solstice, days will eventually start getting lighter as we head out of winter into spring and then summer. Here’s when you can expect to see light in the evenings.

When does it start getting lighter in the evenings?

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Days usually start getting longer by an average of two minutes and seven seconds a few days after the winter solstice. This will start happening after December 21 this year.

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The days get longer by roughly two minutes every day until we finally get a full extra hour of daylight by January 18, 2022.

Starting from here and every four weeks after, we’ll have an hour of sunshine lighting up the sky- although the evenings will still remain dark.

If you want to see lighter evenings, you’ll have to wait until March for the spring equinox on March 20, 2022.

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After March 20, there will be equal amounts of daylight to night time.

After this, the days will get longer, this time by four minutes on every passing day, until the sun starts setting only after 6pm.

The evenings will then continue to get lighter and lighter until we get to the summer solstice or the longest day of the year on June 21, 2022.

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When we pass this date, our evenings will begin getting shorter again, as the cycle continues.

How much light we get also depends on clocks going forward in March and back again in October.

What is the Winter Solstice?

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The winter solstice occurs when the Earth’s axis is tilted away from the sun, marking what is the shortest day and longest night in 365 days in the Northern Hemisphere.

Typically, the shortest day happens between December 20-23 – with it happening this year on December 21, when London will get around sees around seven hours, 49 minutes and 42 seconds of sunlight.

The sun will rise at around 8.04 am on this day.

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It’s after the winter solstice that your days start getting lighter again, but there’s usually a delay and it doesn’t happen immediately after the solstice.

This is because of something called the Equation of Time, which is decided by the earth’s orbit and axis.

READ MORE: What is the Autumn Equinox? Meaning and how it's celebrated in the UKREAD MORE: Summer solstice: Bizarre midsummer rituals from fertility spells to dunking goats