Shortest day. Longest night.

Regardless of how you look at it, Saturday marks the 2019 winter solstice — the official beginning of winter (astronomically, at least) and the day the sun makes its briefest appearance of the year.

4:56 p.m.

Official time of sunset in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Varies depending on location, with Greensburg and Tarentum at 4:55 p.m.

9 hours, 16 minutes, 58 seconds

Amount of daylight on Saturday, and the least amount of the year.

11:19 p.m. EST

The exact moment of the solstice — when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which is latitude 23°27′ S of the Equator. It is when winter officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere, as Earth reaches its greatest possible tilt away from the sun north of the Equator.

Solstitium

Latin word from which solstice is derived. It means “the Sun stands still.”

23-1/2 degrees

Angle of Earth’s tilt on its axis, which (along with its orbit around the sun) accounts for longer days and nights year around.

June 20

Date of the 2020 summer solstice, which marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the official start of summer.

Sources: NOAA, earthsky.org, timeanddate.com, Tribune-Review research

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