Winter Solstice 2024

Today is the Winter solstice 2024 in Northern Hemisphere including the UK and will be at 15:56 GMT, from today we will see our days become longer as we have more extended periods of daylight, which is a good thing as I hate the dark mornings and evenings of Winter.

The solstice also marks the first day of Winter, of course, and as well as becoming longer, temperatures will also start to drop. They are already warning of snow during Christmas week in the UK. 

Now is the time that a lot of Allotment holders look forward to the Spring we are looking at seed catalogues we have and those that will come just after Christmas, planning what they are going to do and grow on their allotments. Me I've been planning that since the start of Autumn and I still have a way to go and some decisions to make, especially re a possible polytunnel or more smaller raised beds.

Happy Winter Solstice

The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun appears at its most southerly position, directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn. 

There are actually two ways in which the seasons are defined in the United Kingdom:-

• For Meteorological purposes, winter covers the months of December, January and February. This allows for exact comparison between years and ignores, for example, fluctuations caused by leap years in the Solstice dates.
• However, the Astronomical winter is defined by the equinoxes and solstices. So it runs from December 21 or 22 to March 20 or 21.

All I know is that the days will gradually get longer and the night shorter and I will not feel so SAD as I'm sure I'm part solar powered. lets get Christmas over and done with and hopefully some mild drier weather so I can actually get down onto my allotment and get the huge list of chores done before we kick of sowing and planting.