Rejoice! After today, the daylight period will begin to increase. Actually, the sun has been setting later now for the past two weeks. In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the winter solstice, which occurs when the Sun's direct rays are over the Tropic of Capricorn
(23 and 1/2 degrees south of the Equator). This means that the Southern Hemisphere has the longest period of daylight and consequently, we in the Northern Hemisphere have the shortest period of daylight. However, this does not mean that the Sun sets earliest and rises latest at the
time of the winter solstice. The earliest sunset occurs about Dec. 8, and the latest sunrise occurs about Jan. 5, two weeks before and after the solstice, respectively. Conversely, in the Northern Hemisphere summer
the earliest sunrise is about June 15 and the latest sunset about June 28. So even though there is six months between the solstices, there are several weeks less than that between the times of the earliest and latest sunrise and sunset.
Why doesn't the sun rise the latest and set the earliest on the day when there is the shortest amount of daylight? The reasons for this are pretty complex, but it has to do with the following: The Earth's orbit is elliptical and not circular - the Earth is actually closer to the Sun in Dec. than in June; the Earth's axis is tilted 23 and 1/2 degrees - if there was no tilt then there would be no seasonal changes; the Earth is not a perfect sphere - it bulges a bit at the Equator.
The winter solstice will occur next week. This is the day in the Northern Hemisphere when the period of daylight is the shortest. Is this also the day of the latest sunrise and the earliest sunset?