2024 December Solstice

The December Solstice arrived in New Zealand at 10:20pm NZDT tonight, meaning that today was the longest day of the year—and they’ll now start getting shorter. There are people who feel that today is the first day of Southern Hemisphere summer, and because of that it’s also known as the start of astronomical summer. As I’ve said many times, though, I’m a meteorological season kind of guy, and noted the start of our summer, as I do, back on December 1. To me, the summer solstice is nearing the end of the first third of the season.

This weekend was predicted to be stormy, and this morning certainly was. Around midday, the rains were torrential, and the winds were surprisingly strong. And then it just faded away and later in the afternoon it became a beautiful sunny day with skies that were blue with puffy clouds. It was even a relatively pleasant 24 degrees (75.2F) today, which is not always the case this time of year.

I recently noticed something that I hadn’t before: In summer, I generate electricity even on cloudy days, sometimes enough to run a hungry appliance—like the dishwasher or the dyer—and still send power to the grid. In winter, a cloudy day usually means too little power is generated for that to be possible. This is probably because of axial tilt, which means the sun is facing the Southern Hemisphere, and that makes just enough difference that more light gets through this time of year.

I noticed this because I went into the garage recently and heard the inverter whirring away. That’s the device that takes the DC electricity from the solar panels, converts it to AC, and then sends that power first to my house, then anything surplus goes to the grid. When the sun is shining brightly in the afternoon, it can be rather loud, and since it’s mounted on the wall separating the garage from the kitchen, I can hear the inverter when I’m standing in the kitchen. The whirring isn’t even almost that loud on a cloudy summer day, but loud enough that I can hear it when I walk into the garage; it's even quieter on a cloudy winter day.

Another benefit of summer settling in is that lawns are definitely growing more slowly, and even starting to brown-off in spots, all of which happens in a typical summer. Speaking of which, I’m trying to not say “normal summer” any more because the weather has become much less predictable, and with severe storms more frequent, than used to be the case. Still, if this summer is becoming more like a typical summer, that’ll mean less mowing, and, to me, that’s a wonderful thing,

Even though I know that the days are now beginning to get shorter, it won’t be noticeable for at least a month, so I can ignore that pesky detail for now. I love summer the most, and I intend to enjoy this one.

Here’s the list of when the solstices and equinoxes arrive in New Zealand next year, provided by TimeAndDate.com:

March Equinox: 10:01pm NZDT on March 20, 2025. June Solstice: 2:42pm NZST on June 21, 2025. September Equinox: 6:19am NZST on September 23, 2025. December Solstice: 4:03pm NZDT on December 22, 2025

Related:

In New Zealand, Daylight Saving Time starts at 2am on the last Sunday in September, and ends at 3am on the first Sunday in April. This means that our current NZ Daylight Time (NZDT) ends at 3am on Sunday, April 6, 2025, and we resume NZ Standard Time (NZST). Then, at 2am on Sunday, September 28, 2025, NZDT returns again. In both cases, the dates and times are fairly easy to work out, unlike solstices and equinoxes.

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.