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Equinoxes and solstices: the dates of the seasons
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December solstice
Monday 21 December 2026 at 20:50 UTC (20:50 in London, 15:50 in New York)
Right now in the northern hemisphere: autumn, since 23 September 2026.
The Earth on its orbit
Not to scale. The Earth’s axis keeps the same direction all year: in June the North Pole leans towards the Sun (summer in the northern hemisphere); in December it leans away.
Dates and times (UTC)
| Year | March equinox | June solstice | September equinox | December solstice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 20 March14:45 | 21 June08:24 | 23 September00:05 | 21 December20:50 |
| 2027 | 20 March20:24 | 21 June14:10 | 23 September06:01 | 22 December02:42 |
| 2028 | 20 March02:17 | 20 June20:01 | 22 September11:45 | 21 December08:20 |
| 2029 | 20 March08:01 | 21 June01:48 | 22 September17:37 | 21 December14:14 |
| 2030 | 20 March13:51 | 21 June07:31 | 22 September23:27 | 21 December20:09 |
| 2031 | 20 March19:41 | 21 June13:17 | 23 September05:15 | 22 December01:56 |
Moments worked out with Jean Meeus’s algorithms, to the minute. They are the same all over the Earth; only the local time changes.
Equinox and solstice: what are they?
The Earth’s axis is tilted by about 23.4° on its orbit. Over the year, first the northern hemisphere, then the southern hemisphere gets the Sun highest in the sky: these are the seasons.
- At the equinoxes (March and September), the Sun is overhead at the equator: day and night last roughly twelve hours everywhere. In fact the day is already slightly longer than twelve hours, because of atmospheric refraction and because sunrise and sunset are counted at the edge of the Sun’s disc.
- At the June solstice, the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer: it is the longest day in the northern hemisphere and the shortest in the southern hemisphere.
- At the December solstice, it is the other way round: the shortest day in London, the longest in Sydney, Cape Town or Buenos Aires.
In the southern hemisphere the seasons are reversed: the March equinox marks the start of autumn there, the December solstice the start of summer. Day length in your city, and its shortest and longest days, are given on its page.
Why is the shortest day not the one with the earliest sunset? In London, the sun sets earliest around 12 December and rises latest around the turn of the year, on either side of the solstice: this is the equation of time, the Sun running ahead of and behind our clocks over the year.