It feels like a lifetime ago since we saw daylight past 4pm but luckily, the dark evenings are almost over as the winter solstice approaches.
Tuesday (December 21) will be the shortest day of the year as the sun will reach its most southerly declination and deliver the fewest hours of sunlight of the year.
The night of December 21 will be the longest night of the year but the day after will mark the beginning of longer days and the lead-up to the summer solstice in June.
There will be approximately seven hours of sunlight on Tuesday with the sun rising around 8.45am and setting around 3.40pm.
By comparison, the longest day of the year in Glasgow usually yields over 17 and a half sunlight hours.
Astronomical winter begins on December 21, with the winter solstice, and ends on March 20, 2022. Meteorological winter always begins on December 1 and ends on February 28 (or February 29 during leap years).
While astronomical winters are determined by the Earth's orbit around the sun, meteorological winters are the three calendar months with the lowest average temperatures.
So by that measure, we are actually already in the midst of winter but can officially start looking forward to summer when the nights are longer and not absolutely freezing.
With the events of the last few weeks and Christmas (once again) hanging in the balance, we'll take any good news we can get!
