Today is the Shortest Day of the Year

Friday, Dec. 21, is the winter solstice, the first real day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Bad news for those who like daylight: we won't have much on Friday.  Dec. 21, 2012, is the winter solstice in earth's Northern Hemisphere. The days have been getting a little shorter since the summer solstice last June. As you may remember from your grade school science lessons, the seasons and the changing lengths of the day and night throughout the year are a result of the Earth's axial tilt. Try to visualize the Earth's orbit around the sun as an elliptical path on an imaginary plane in space. As the Earth rests in that plane, its north and south poles—the ends of its axis—do not point straight "up" and "down." The axis is instead about 23.4 degrees off the "vertical." As a result, the northern and southern hemisphere do not receive …

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