Australia is on the verge of having its shortest day and longest night of the year, with the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice occurring in one week’s time.

The winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere marks the moment the Earth’s South Pole reaches its furthest tilt away from the Sun. On the date of the winter solstice, all of Australia experiences its shortest day of the year based on daylight hours and its longest night of the year based on darkness hours.

Image: The Earth’s angle relative to the sun on the date of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice.

This year’s Southern Hemisphere winter solstice will occur at 12:58 am AEST on Thursday, June 22.

Due to the angle of the solar terminator at the winter solstice, Adelaide and Townsville experience sunset within a couple of minutes of each other. For comparison, their sunsets are more than one hour apart on the summer solstice in late December.

Following next week’s winter solstice, days will start to become longer, and nights will get shorter for the next six months, until the date of the summer solstice on December 22.