By Mark Bergin, WRAL senior multiplatform producer and Elizabeth Gardner, WRAL meteorologist
Saturday marks the winter solstice, which is the shortest day or longest night of the year for people living in the Northern Hemisphere.
Here's what you need to know about the winter solstice.
Dec. 21 is the shortest day of the year because during the winter solstice, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun and the sun's position is at its most southerly point, directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil and northern South Africa.
"I think that it would make sense to people that the shortest day of the year would be the coldest day of the year, and that from here, we're going to start to see longer days and shorter nights, and that we would warm up pretty quickly - but that's not how it happens, " WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner said.
Gardner compared the winter solstice to boiling water on a stove top.
"[When] you're trying to boil some water, it doesn't heat up instantly. It takes some time, and the atmosphere takes some time to cool down and to warm up," Gardner said.
The record high for the start of the astronomical winter was 74 degrees in 2013, and the record low was 8 degrees in 1963.
The solstices and equinoxes can happen on the 20th, 21st or 22nd of the month depending on the calendar year.
Saturday also marks the first day of astronomical winter - although meteorological winter began Dec. 1. Raleigh will have daylight from 7:20 a.m. to 5:04 p.m., or for nine hours, 43 minutes and 57 seconds.
"Once we get to the day after the solstice, our days begin to get longer, but it's subtle," Gardner said.
In the southern hemisphere, summer is just beginning, and the December solstice marks the longest day of the year.