Winter Begins Tuesday

At precisely 6:38 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (23:38 UTC) on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 winter begins in the Northern Hemisphere and summer begins in the Southern Hemisphere. Tuesday marks the December solstice and there will be 24 hours of daylight south of the Antarctic Circle (66.5° south of the equator) and 24 hours of darkness north of the Arctic Circle (66.5° north of the equator). The sun's rays will be directly overhead Tropic of Capricorn (the latitude line at 23.5° south, passing through Brazil, South Africa, and Australia) on December 21 and the equator, as always, will experience twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness.