2018 December Solstice

The December Solstice arrived in New Zealand at 11:22am this morning. That means that today was the longest day of the year, though we’ve already begun the slow, months-long march back toward winter. But we've got the best of summer ahead of us (and autumn) before we get to that.

As I always say, the December Solstice doesn’t have any meaning in this part of the world, because we always say that summer begins on December First. One of the reasons that equinoxes and solstices get ignored is that the date and time of their arrival change each time, so we’d always need to check. It’s much easier just to use the first of the month in which it occurs.

We’re now done with astronomical events for this year. Here’s the list of when they arrive in New Zealand next year, provided by TimeAndDate.com:

March Equinox: 10:58am NZDT on March 21, 2019.
June Solstice: 3:54am NZST on June 22, 2019
September Equinox: 7:50pm NZST on September 23, 2019
December Solstice: 5:19pm NZDT on December 22, 2019

NZ Daylight Time (NZDT) ends at 3am on Sunday, April 7, 2019, and we resume NZ Standard Time (NZST). At 2am on Sunday, September 29, 2019, NZST ends and we begin NZDT again.

I created the graphic above for a post in 2012. I used an image in the public domain and claim no ownership over that image, however, the composition is licensed under my usual Creative Commons license.