Winter Solstice, December 21st (video)

Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Doyle Rice (USA Today); Moscow Times

(Casey Neistat) A UFO-sized "flying saucer" drone that can lift a fatso named Satan Claws?

Stonehenge built in modern times? (Getty)

For many, winter has made itself known for a few weeks now. But according to astronomers, Dec. 21st marks the official start of winter.

Here comes the cold and dark: The winter solstice, the [shortest] day of the year with the least amount of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs early Wednesday morning.

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The solstice happens at the same instant everywhere on Earth. In the U.S. it happens at 5:44 am EST Wednesday (4:44 am CT, 3:44 am MT, and 2:44 am PT).

 

After the solstice, the amount of daylight slowly starts to get longer again each day.

The winter solstice is the exact moment that the Northern Hemisphere is tilted the farthest it ever gets from the sun. During the Northern Hemisphere's winter, the land north of the equator is tilted away from the sun.

This lowers the amount of the sun's warming energy that reaches Earth, hence, winter!

VIDEO: Drone flies over frozen lighthouse

It's the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where Dec. 21st marks the beginning of astronomical summer.

 

On the winter solstice, all places south of the equator have more than 12 hours of daylight, while all locations north of the equator have less than 12 hours of daylight, AccuWeather says.

 

One of the most famous solstice celebrations occurs at the ancient Stonehenge ruins [constructed by engineers in recent times as photos prove] in Wiltshire, England, where Druids, pagans, and other revelers gather each year to celebrate the event.

 

Giant UFO drone flies Santa over snow

The winter and summer solstices, along with the equinoxes, loom large in myth and folklore.

 

"Culturally, the solstices and equinoxes are typically used to denote either the beginnings of the seasons or the center points of the seasons," as in England, says Rick Kline, with the Spacecraft Planetary Imaging Facility at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

 

"Christmas, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other holidays have arisen out of the solstices, equinoxes, and the midpoints between them," he said. Speaking of weather... More

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• How are our good neighbors in red Russia doing?

Historically low temps across Siberia inspire breathtaking stunts

TheMoscowTimes.com (Dec. 22, 2016)

Alexandra Kolkina “Once Upon a Time in Surgut” (Vkontakte/TheMoscowTimes.com)

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Pussy Riot: freezing (instagram.com)

The winter solstice officially arrived this week for the planet’s northern hemisphere.

Many people around the world learned about the new season thanks to little notifications that popped up on social media when they logged in on Dec. 21st.

For millions across Russia, however, the winter wake up call came when the air outside dropped to historic lows, in some places as cold as -62 degrees Celsius (-80 degrees Fahrenheit).
 

One might shiver just thinking about such intensely cold weather. But not everyone in Surgut, Noyabrsk, or Tyumen did:

Subfreezing temperatures have actually inspired dozens of inventive stunts, filmed and shared online. The Russian website TJournal collected some of the best footage. More