Winter Solstice 2026: Dec. 21 at 3:50 p.m. EST, and Why the Earliest Sunset Comes First
Note: Some future links on this site may be affiliate links. We never claim hands-on testing; guides are researched from the public sources listed in each article.
How we wrote this: Solstice, perihelion and sunrise/sunset times come from the U.S. Naval Observatory's official data services (linked below), retrieved October 29, 2026. Sunrise and sunset times are for New York City (40.71° N, 74.01° W) in Eastern Standard Time; your city's times will differ.
Correction (October 29, 2026): An earlier version gave the perihelion time as 4:33 p.m. EST (21:33 UT). The USNO data put it at 9:33 p.m. EST on January 2, which is 02:33 UT on January 3.
The shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is coming up. Here are the exact numbers for 2026, plus a quirk that surprises many people: the darkest evenings and the darkest mornings don't fall on the solstice itself.
When is the 2026 winter solstice?
According to the U.S. Naval Observatory's Earth's Seasons data service, the December solstice is on Monday, December 21, 2026, at 3:50 p.m. EST (20:50 Universal Time). In other U.S. time zones that's 2:50 p.m. CST, 1:50 p.m. MST and 12:50 p.m. PST.
The USNO notes that the solstices mark the beginning of summer and winter, and that the seasons are named for the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, December 21 is the start of summer.
What a solstice is
The USNO's explainer on the seasons and Earth's orbit says the seasons come from the 23.4° tilt of Earth's axis. The solstices are the two points in the year when the axis is most tilted toward or away from the Sun, so days are longest in the hemisphere tilted toward it and shortest in the other.
The shortest day, in numbers (New York City)
From the USNO's one-day Sun and Moon data for New York City:
| Date | Sunrise | Solar noon | Sunset | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 30, 2026 | 7:00 a.m. | 11:45 a.m. | 4:30 p.m. | 9 h 30 min |
| Dec. 7, 2026 | 7:06 a.m. | 11:48 a.m. | 4:28 p.m. | 9 h 22 min |
| Dec. 21, 2026 (solstice) | 7:17 a.m. | 11:54 a.m. | 4:32 p.m. | 9 h 15 min |
| Jan. 3, 2027 | 7:20 a.m. | 12:01 p.m. | 4:41 p.m. | 9 h 21 min |
"Solar noon" is the USNO's upper transit, when the Sun is highest in the sky.
On June 21, 2026, by comparison, New York's sun rose at 5:25 a.m. EDT and set at 8:31 p.m. EDT.
Why the earliest sunset comes before the solstice
If the solstice is the shortest day, you might expect it to have both the latest sunrise and the earliest sunset. The USNO data for New York City says otherwise:
- Earliest sunset: 4:28 p.m., from about December 6 to December 9.
- Solstice sunset: 4:32 p.m., already a few minutes later.
- Latest sunrise: 7:20 a.m., from about December 29 into the first week of January.
So evenings start getting lighter about two weeks before the solstice, while mornings keep getting darker for about two weeks after it. The table shows why: the total daylight is still smallest around December 21, but solar noon keeps moving later through December and into January (11:45 a.m. on November 30, 12:01 p.m. on January 3). That slides the whole block of daylight later, so sunset bottoms out early and sunrise keeps getting later after the solstice. The exact dates vary by latitude, so check the USNO data for your location.
Bonus: Earth is closest to the Sun in January
The USNO lists Earth's perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, on January 2, 2027, at 9:33 p.m. EST (02:33 UT on January 3). The USNO's explainer says perihelion comes only about two weeks after the December solstice, so Northern Hemisphere winter begins when Earth is nearest the Sun. It adds that the closeness of the two dates is "a coincidence of the particular century we live in."
Make a night of it
The long December nights are good for sky-watching. The Geminid meteor shower peaks a week before the solstice, and our guide to stargazing with binoculars covers what you can see on a clear winter night.