Today marks the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, making this Australia’s longest day of the year based on daylight hours.

The December solstice marks the moment the Southern Hemisphere reaches its furthest tilt towards the sun in its annual orbit. The orientation of Earth relative to the sun on this date makes it the longest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere (summer solstice) and the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (winter solstice).

This year’s summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere occurs at 1:28pm AEST on Friday, December 22.

The time between today’s sunrise and sunset in Australia’s capital cities will range from 12 hours and 52 minutes in Darwin to 15 hours and 22 minutes in Hobart. Sydney’s summer solstice day will be 14 hours and 25 minutes long, while Melbourne gets a little more daylight at 14 hours and 48 minutes.

Following today’s summer solstice, days will start getting shorter and nights will become longer across Australia and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere. This trend will continue until the shortest day of 2024 on the winter solstice in late June.