THE SHORTEST DAY

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 13889, 23 June 1938, Page 3

THE SHORTEST DAY

OCCURRED ON WEDNESDAY. WINTER. REALLY BEGINS. Tlit; occurrence of the shortest day (ill Wednesday marked the commencement of the calendar season of winter. After the recent cold, rainy «P.ell experienced throughout the Dominion many were convinced that winter had already begun. Actually, the calendar season is a purely arbitrary arrangement and in a general sense June. July and August are regarded as the winter months. The sun was at the most northern I'art of its orbit on Wednesday and consequently the soutliern hemisphere then received the least amount of heat from the sun. The coldest days, however, may be expected some six weeks or so after the solstice, because the warmth absorbed by the soil during the mild autumn experienced has not all been re-radiated, and until the soil reaches a state of balance in which it radiates heat as fast as it absorbs it the coldest days cannot Ibe expected. One would expect the winter solstice to be fixed as mid-winter’s dav in any arbitrary arrangement of the seasons, but it is officially regarded as the commencement of winter in order to bring it more into line with the meteorological season, which, in this region, begins some two weeks or so earlier than the calendar season . The term shortest day, applied to the winter solstice, is somewhat of a misnomer. In the first place, reference to tables of sunrise and sunset reveals that Wednesday will not be tin* day of least sunlight, expressed in mean time, which is the time kept bv terrestrial clocks. Even when true solar time is considered it is found that the total sunlight received in the southern hemisphere on the day o| the solstice is only a few seconds less than that enjoyed on the preceding and following days. The average man will notice no difference I in the length of the day between now | and the end of the month.