Winter Solstice 2026: Shortest Day Is Dec. 21 at 3:50 p.m. ET, With Sunset Times for 8 U.S. Cities

The winter solstice falls on Monday, Dec. 21, 2026, at 20:50 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is 3:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). The solstice is the first day of winter and the day with the least daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. This story converts the moment to every U.S. time zone, lists sunrise, sunset and daylight for eight cities, and shows why the earliest sunset comes about two weeks before the solstice.

What time is the winter solstice in each U.S. time zone?

USNO’s Earth’s Seasons data gives the moment in UTC. The local times below are our conversions, in standard time, all on Dec. 21.

Time zone	Solstice time, Mon., Dec. 21, 2026
UTC	8:50 p.m. (20:50)
Eastern Standard Time (EST)	3:50 p.m.
Central Standard Time (CST)	2:50 p.m.
Mountain Standard Time (MST), including Arizona	1:50 p.m.
Pacific Standard Time (PST)	12:50 p.m.
Alaska Standard Time (AKST)	11:50 a.m.
Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HST)	10:50 a.m.

Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, so it shares Mountain Standard Time.

How much daylight is there on Dec. 21, 2026?

Sunrise and sunset below come from the USNO Rise/Set/Transit data for Dec. 21, 2026, in each city’s local standard time. We computed the length of the day from them.

City	Sunrise	Sunset	Daylight
New York	7:17 a.m.	4:32 p.m.	9 h 15 min
Chicago	7:15 a.m.	4:23 p.m.	9 h 8 min
Denver	7:18 a.m.	4:39 p.m.	9 h 21 min
Los Angeles	6:55 a.m.	4:48 p.m.	9 h 53 min
Miami	7:03 a.m.	5:35 p.m.	10 h 32 min
Seattle	7:55 a.m.	4:20 p.m.	8 h 25 min
Anchorage	10:14 a.m.	3:41 p.m.	5 h 27 min
Honolulu	7:05 a.m.	5:55 p.m.	10 h 50 min

The spread is wide: Seattle gets 8 hours 25 minutes of daylight and Anchorage 5 hours 27 minutes, while Honolulu gets 10 hours 50 minutes. In New York, civil twilight begins at 6:46 a.m. and ends at 5:03 p.m. that day, according to USNO.

Why is the earliest sunset before the solstice?

The shortest day does not bring the earliest sunset. USNO’s guide to sunrise and sunset near the solstices says that at latitude 40° north, the earliest sunset occurs around Dec. 8 each year and the latest sunrise around Jan. 5. Both are about two weeks from the solstice.

Event at 40° N	Date
Earliest sunset	Around Dec. 8
Winter solstice, least daylight	Dec. 21, 2026
Latest sunrise	Around Jan. 5, 2027

So in early December the evenings stop getting darker while the mornings keep getting later. USNO notes that sunrise times do not start moving earlier until after the date of the solstice. The timing depends on latitude: at the equator, USNO puts the earliest sunset around Nov. 2 and the latest sunrise around Feb. 11. For city-by-city earliest-sunset dates, see our story on sunset times after daylight saving time ends.

When are the next seasons after the solstice?

These are USNO times for 2027. The March equinox and June solstice fall during daylight saving time, which starts Sunday, Mar. 14, 2027, so we show them in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

2027 event	Date	UTC	Eastern
March equinox	Sat., Mar. 20	20:25	4:25 p.m. EDT
June solstice	Mon., Jun. 21	14:11	10:11 a.m. EDT
September equinox	Thu., Sep. 23	06:02	2:02 a.m. EDT
December solstice	Wed., Dec. 22 (UTC)	02:42	9:42 p.m. EST, Tue., Dec. 21

The other 2026 events in USNO’s data are the March equinox on Mar. 20 at 14:46 UTC, the June solstice on Jun. 21 at 08:24 UTC and the September equinox on Sep. 23 at 00:05 UTC.

For the sky around the same weeks, read our story on the Cold Moon, Geminids and solstice. Another USNO date list is in our 2027 eclipse dates and times.

Printable key dates

Print the one-page list of the earliest-sunset, solstice and latest-sunrise dates, the 2027 season dates and the eight city times, then mark them on the December 2026 and January 2027 printable calendars.