It’s been a very wintry few weeks for much of New Zealand.  Cold and snow more reminiscent of August greeted many Kiwis as we kicked off this month, and we hadn’t even reached the winter solstice.

Until today.

Today is the shortest day of the year with the solstice at 11:09 am.  Auckland will have just 9 hours and 38 minutes of daylight today.  Wellington will 9 hours and 11 minutes of daylight.  Christchurch will have 8 hours and 56 minutes.  Invercargill will have just 8 hours 35 minutes.

Of course this also means that the days start getting longer again as of tomorrow. 

Homepage image/ Malcolm Gayfer

By WeatherWatch Analyst Howard Joseph