It's a good thing it's sunny right now.
Otherwise, you might be bummed out by the fact that today's winter solstice means the sun is as far away as it's ever going to get from us, daylight will be scant and bitter cold is a guarantee.
"Yes, it is the shortest day of the year and it tends to be cold because the sun is at its lowest angle of the year and there's very little chance for the sun to warm anything up, even just a little," said Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon.
Actual winter solstice, when the planet's poles are at maximum tilt from the sun, is just a moment at 1:48 pm today.
Yet, the day it happens is also called winter solstice, so hello cold-and-freakishly-early-sunset Dec. 21.
This solstice is based on the astronomical definition of the start of winter every year on either Dec. 21 or 22, just as the spring solstice is either June 20 or 21 when the Earth's poles are tilted closest to the sun and we get the longest day of the year.
The other two season starts -- spring on March 21 and fall on Sept. 23 -- are equinoxes when the sun is exactly above the equator and day and night are of equal length.
For ease of keeping monthly weather statistics, forecasters have tied the seasons up into tidy three-month increments called the meteorological seasons starting Dec. 1, March 1, June 1 and Sept. 1.
The length of this winter solstice shortest day of the year depends on how far north you are in the Northern Hemisphere, so latitude and the curvature of the Earth does make a difference.
Thus, there are differences within even within the NowMedia Group's coverage areas in the Thompson Okanagan, Victoria and Prince George.
- Kelowna, latitude 49.88 degrees north
Today's sunrise at 7:53 am, today's sunset at 3:58 pm for only 8 hours and five minutes of daylight.
Usable light, called civil twilight, is a little longer with it first getting light at 7:15 am and last light fading at 4:37 pm.
Daylight will slowly increase, a minute a day, until the longest day of the year on June 21's summer solstice, when there will be 16 hours and 21 minutes of daylight in Kelowna with sunrise at 4:49 am and sunset at 9:10 pm. Wow, what a difference.
- Penticton, latitude 49.49 degrees north
Sunrise at 7:52 am, sunset at 4:01 pm for 8 hours and 9 minutes of daylight.
- Vernon, latitude 50.27 degrees north
Sunrise at 7:52 am, sunset at 3:58 pm for 8 hours and 6 minutes of daylight.
- Kamloops, latitude 50.68 north
Sunrise at 8 am, sunset at 3:58 pm for 7 hours and 58 minutes of daylight.
- Victoria, latitude 48.41 degrees north
Sunrise at 8:02 am, sunset at 4:20 pm for 8 hours and 18 minutes of daylight.
- Prince George, latitude 53.92 degrees north
Sunrise at 8:27 am, sunset at 3:35 pm for 7 hours and 23 minutes of daylight.
Since winter solstice also tends to be cold, early morning temperatures were either record-low or close to.
For instance, Prince George shattered its record low for Dec. 21 with -40.5C, beating 2008's -35.1.
Penticton tied its record low for this day at -19.2, which it also was in 1990.
Vernon has missing data for today, but the record low in 1990 was -27.5.
Kelowna was cold at -23 this morning, but not frigid enough the beat the record low of -27.6 in 1990.
Kamloops just missed 1924's record low of -25.6 with this morning's -25.5.
And Victoria was a balmy -7 this morning, four degrees off its record low of -11 in 1990.
Temperatures are forecasted to warm as the Arctic outbreak shifts on Friday and Saturday.
That means for Kelowna daytime highs and overnight lows will be similar at around -14.
But with that warming comes snow and strong winds for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
