Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1898 — Shortest Day and Longest Night. [ARTICLE]

Shortest Day and Longest Night.

Today is the shortest day of the j ear. At 2 o’clock this afternoon the sun reached its farthest point southward, and for a few days will remain stationary on the tropic of Capricorn, and will thqn begin its slow journey northward again. Today it is just the noon of the south pole’s six months long day, and just midnight of the north pole’s six months night. On this latitude the sun rose today at 7:21 and sets at 4:34, the day’s length being 9 hours and 13 minutes. In a week from now the day will only be 3. minutes longer. If astronomical phenomena alone ruled the seasons, the 21st of December ought to be midwinter, and the 21st of June midsummer. But the great accumulation of ice and snow in the winter in the north, operates to defer the coming of actual summer, and on the other hand, the accumulation of heat in the summer tends also to defer the actual approach of winter weather. The result is that both summer and winter are shortened at their coming and lengthened at their going, so that actual summei and actual winter, do not begin until about three months after they are astronomically due. Therefore winter is considered to begin today, instead at the autumn equinox, on or about the 20th of September.