While the day with the least amount of daylight is here, the good news for optimists is that starting tomorrow, there is more daylight to come.
The bad news is, that increase in daylight will be around two seconds.
Winter solstice, known otherwise around the world as midwinter, Yule or the longest night, officially arrived Dec.21 at 8:28 a.m., with the day length hours lasting eight hours, seven minutes and 29 seconds.
Sunrise was officially at 8:14 a.m. in Comox, and is scheduled to set at 4:21 p.m.
In terms of daylight, this day is eight hours and 11 minutes shorter than on June solstice.
On winter solstice, the sun reaches its southernmost point in the sky. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the sun is directly overhead at ‘high-noon’ on winter solstice at the latitude called the Tropic of Capricorn.
According to some theories, Stonehenge - one of Britain’s most recognizable landmarks - was built to celebrate the winter solstice. Due to the alignment of the stones, experts acknowledge the design appears to correspond with the use of the solstices and possibly other solar and lunar astronomical events in some fashion.