Winter starts at the December solstice, the shortest day north of the equator, which falls on Monday, December 21, 2026 in your time zone: 57 days from today.
The first day of winter 2026:
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57days to go.
Time left until 12:00 AM on December 21:
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Winter starts on the day of the December solstice.
December solstice:3:50 PM EST on Monday, December 21, 2026 (20:50 UTC on December 21, 2026)
84.4% of the time since the first day of winter 2025 has gone by
How many days until winter: December solstice times, 2026 to 2030
The first day of winter is the day of the December solstice. Each year the moment comes nearly 6 hours later on the clock, and every leap day pulls it back by a full day. Dates and times are in your time zone.
Year
Date and time
Days away
2026
3:50 PM EST
57 days
2027
9:42 PM EST
422 days
2028
3:20 AM EST
788 days
2029
9:14 AM EST
1,153 days
2030
3:10 PM EST
1,518 days
The December solstice 2026 across U.S. time zones
The December solstice happens at the same instant everywhere, so the local date can differ between U.S. time zones. Each time follows that zone's own daylight saving time rules.
Time zone
Date and time
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
Monday, December 2120:50 UTC
Chamorro (Guam)
Tuesday, December 226:50 AM ChST
Atlantic (San Juan)
Monday, December 214:50 PM AST
Eastern (New York)
Monday, December 213:50 PM EST
Central (Chicago)
Monday, December 212:50 PM CST
Mountain (Denver)
Monday, December 211:50 PM MST
Arizona (Phoenix)
Monday, December 211:50 PM MST
Pacific (Los Angeles)
Monday, December 2112:50 PM PST
Alaska (Anchorage)
Monday, December 2111:50 AM AKST
Hawaii (Honolulu)
Monday, December 2110:50 AM HST
Samoa (Pago Pago)
Monday, December 219:50 AM SST
When is the first day of winter?
Winter starts at the December solstice, when the noon Sun stands over the Tropic of Capricorn, 23.5 degrees south of the equator, the farthest south it ever reaches. Your clock will show 3:50 PM EST on Monday, December 21, 2026 at that instant (20:50 UTC on December 21, 2026).
Eastern Time puts it on December 21 in most years. December 22 last happened in 2011, and December 20 begins to turn up in 2052. Guam, 15 hours ahead of New York in December, sees it on December 22 in about half of all years.
The shortest day of the year
The National Weather Service calls the winter solstice the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Daylight starts to return the next day, slowly at first, and keeps growing until the June solstice. South of the equator the same date brings the most daylight instead.
Why winter is the shortest season
Earth is closest to the Sun in early January, at perihelion, so northern winter happens while the planet is nearest, not farthest. NASA explains that the 23.5-degree tilt of Earth’s axis, not distance, makes winter cold. The North Pole leans away, sunlight arrives at a low angle and spreads thin, and the days are short.
Nearness does change the calendar. By Kepler’s second law, Earth moves fastest near perihelion, so it crosses the winter part of its orbit in the least time. Measured between the 2026 equinoxes and solstices:
Astronomical season
Starts at
Length
Spring
March equinox
92 days and 17 hours
Summer
June solstice
93 days and 15 hours
Fall
September equinox
89 days and 20 hours
Winter
December solstice
88 days and 23 hours
Meteorological winter: December 1 to February 28 or 29
Forecasters count winter as December, January and February, 90 days long, or 91 when February has 29 days. NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information groups those months by the yearly temperature cycle, so each winter covers the same span as the last.