Astronomical winter begins in one week on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. But what does that mean?

Daylight during the winter solstice is actually a whopping nine hours shorter than what we see during the summer solstice.

On the summer solstice, in London we tend to see around 16 hours 38 minutes of daylight, whereas we see a very meagre 7 hours 50 minutes of daylight on the winter solstice.

This year it is 7 hours, 49 minutes and 42 seconds, to be precise. But, at least the days will start to get a little longer from then on! The exact timings of daylight hours will vary, with those further north seeing an even shorter day.

While the winter solstice is widely known as the shortest day of the year, did you know that it actually happens at a precise time in the day, but not at the same time every year?

This year the winter solstice will occur at 03:27 am on December 21st in the UK and Ireland, whereas last year, it was at 09:48 pm.

The winter solstice may also not occur on the same date. Although the December 21st is the most common, it can happen anytime between December 20th-23rd.

The last winter solstice on December 23rd was in 1903, but this date won't happen again until 2303.