Welcome back, winter.
The winter solstice – which marks the beginning of astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere – is Tuesday. It's the precise moment at which the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest from the sun.
The solstice occurs at the same instant everywhere on Earth: Here in the U.S., it happens at 10:59 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Dec. 21.
At that moment, the sun's rays will be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude that circles the Earth in the Southern Hemisphere.
Though the solstice marks the astronomical beginning of winter, meteorologists view the first day of winter as Dec. 1, which is the start of the coldest three months in the Northern Hemisphere.
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