What is the shortest and longest day of the year?
Quick Answer: The shortest day of the year is the Winter Solstice, usually around December 21, with the least daylight. The longest day is the Summer Solstice, around June 21, offering the most daylight hours. These dates vary slightly depending on your location in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere.
The Winter Solstice marks the day when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky at noon, giving us the fewest daylight hours. After this day, daylight starts to increase gradually. In contrast, the Summer Solstice is when the sun is at its highest point, shining the longest.
These solstices happen because of Earth's tilt on its axis as it orbits the sun. When your hemisphere leans away from the sun, days are shorter, and when it leans toward the sun, days get longer. This tilt creates the changing seasons and the variations in day length throughout the year.