Date & Time · Astronomy
Solstice and equinox dates by year.
See the exact minute each season starts, converted to your time zone, for any year from 2026 to 2035.
Short answer: The December solstice in 2026 is at 20:50 UTC on December 21, which is 3:50 pm Eastern Standard Time that day. It marks the start of astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Four moments a year
Each year has two equinoxes and two solstices. The solstices are when the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly point in the sky, and the equinoxes are when it crosses the celestial equator. They are single instants, the same for everyone on Earth, so what changes with where you live is only the clock time and, near midnight, the calendar date. The U.S. Naval Observatory gives them in Universal Time to the minute.
Season start moments in UTC, 2026 to 2035
| Year | March equinox | June solstice | September equinox | December solstice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2026-03-20 14:46 | 2026-06-21 08:24 | 2026-09-23 00:05 | 2026-12-21 20:50 |
| 2027 | 2027-03-20 20:25 | 2027-06-21 14:11 | 2027-09-23 06:02 | 2027-12-22 02:42 |
| 2028 | 2028-03-20 02:17 | 2028-06-20 20:02 | 2028-09-22 11:45 | 2028-12-21 08:19 |
| 2029 | 2029-03-20 08:02 | 2029-06-21 01:48 | 2029-09-22 17:38 | 2029-12-21 14:14 |
| 2030 | 2030-03-20 13:52 | 2030-06-21 07:31 | 2030-09-22 23:27 | 2030-12-21 20:09 |
| 2031 | 2031-03-20 19:41 | 2031-06-21 13:17 | 2031-09-23 05:15 | 2031-12-22 01:55 |
| 2032 | 2032-03-20 01:22 | 2032-06-20 19:09 | 2032-09-22 11:11 | 2032-12-21 07:56 |
| 2033 | 2033-03-20 07:22 | 2033-06-21 01:01 | 2033-09-22 16:51 | 2033-12-21 13:46 |
| 2034 | 2034-03-20 13:17 | 2034-06-21 06:44 | 2034-09-22 22:39 | 2034-12-21 19:34 |
| 2035 | 2035-03-20 19:02 | 2035-06-21 12:33 | 2035-09-23 04:39 | 2035-12-22 01:31 |
Worked example: the December solstice 2026
The Naval Observatory lists it at 20:50 UTC on December 21, 2026. Converting: Mon, Dec 21, 2026, 15:50 EST in Toronto and New York, Mon, Dec 21, 2026, 12:50 PST in Vancouver and Los Angeles, Mon, Dec 21, 2026, 20:50 GMT in London, and Tue, Dec 22, 2026, 07:50 GMT+11 in Sydney, where the date has already rolled over to December 22 and the same instant is the start of summer. The tool does this conversion for any zone in the list using your browser's time zone data.
Names flip in the Southern Hemisphere
The March and September equinoxes and the June and December solstices are named for the month, not the season. In the Northern Hemisphere the December solstice starts winter and the June solstice starts summer. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the other way round, so Australia, New Zealand and South America mark the start of summer in December.
Astronomical and meteorological seasons
These moments mark the astronomical seasons. Weather services in many countries use meteorological seasons instead, which start on the first day of March, June, September and December, so the two definitions can differ by about three weeks.
What this page does not cover
Daylight hours, sunrise and sunset depend on your latitude, so they are not listed. Use the sunrise and sunset calculator for those. Times are given to the minute, as the Observatory publishes them.
Frequently asked questions
When is the winter solstice in 2026?
December 21, 2026 at 20:50 UTC per the U.S. Naval Observatory. In Eastern Standard Time that is 3:50 pm on December 21; in Pacific time it is 12:50 pm.
When is the first day of spring 2027?
The March equinox in 2027 is on March 20 at 20:25 UTC, which is 4:25 pm Eastern Daylight Time on March 20.
When is the summer solstice in 2027?
June 21, 2027 at 14:11 UTC.
Is the solstice the same moment everywhere?
Yes. It is one instant, but the clock time depends on your time zone, so for some places it falls on a different calendar date.
Why does the winter solstice not always fall on December 21?
The year is not a whole number of days, so the moment drifts. In this table the December solstice lands on December 21 in most years and on December 22 in 2027, 2031 and 2035 (UTC).
Where do the times come from?
From the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department Earth's Seasons data service, fetched on 26 October 2026 for each year shown.
Sources
Retrieved
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Exact to the minute, not to the second
Times are published to the minute in Universal Time and converted with your browser's time zone rules. Astronomical seasons differ from the meteorological seasons weather services use.