STOCTON Minn. – Precisely at 3:28 p.m. Winona time, Earth reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. It’s the winter solstice, also known as the hibernal solstice — the day of the year with the least daylight. The farther north, the shorter the day. In Tromso, above the Arctic Circle in Norway, they celebrate by dancing in the streets at the precise hibernal hour. It’s a twilight event. At the north pole itself the days the sun is out 24 hours, albeit it very low in the sky. In the southern hemisphere, it’s the opposite. In fact, it’s 24 hours of daylight at the southern pole.
About as low as it gets. On a recent clear day atop Stockton Hill, as the solstice neared, the sun was almost at its lowest point in the sky. Image: Steve Lunde
Land mass. Most of the the human-habitable planet is nn the northen half.