The nights are drawing in.
The clocks went back at the weekend, meaning that it’s getting darker earlier and thoughts are turning to winter.
But when does winter officially start? Well, there are two correct but different answers to that question.
Here are both - when we’ll experience the shortest day, and when the clocks will ‘spring’ forward.
When does astronomical winter start?
Our seasons are a result of the Earth's axis and orbit around the sun - and in particular the 23.5 degrees of tilt of the Earth's rotational axis.
Winter therefore begins at the winter, or hibernal solstice - when the North Pole reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. It marks the arrival of colder weather to the northern hemisphere and warmer conditions to the southern half of the globe.
In 2026 the winter solstice is on Monday, December 21, marking the start of winter. Astronomical winter then ends on the vernal equinox on Saturday, March 20.
When is the shortest day?
The winter solstice is also the shortest day of the year - on Monday, December 21.
Just how short is the shortest day of the year?
The hours of daylight on the Winter Solstice get shorter the further north you go - in Iceland it will barely get light.
In Edinburgh the sun will rise at 8.42am and set at 3.39pm - that’s just six hours and 57 minutes of daylight . Head up to Inverness and the sun will rise at 8.57am and set at 3.32pm - six hours and 35 minutes of daylight.
How quickly do the days get longer?
The days start getting longer after December 21, 2025, and you’ll notice the difference pretty quickly.
We’ll see an extra hour hour of daylight by January 12 - after the Winter Solstice days get longer by an average of two minutes and seven seconds each day, increasing to around three minutes by the end of February.
On average we continue to gain an additional hour of daylight every four weeks until the longest day of the year on Monday, June 21, 2027.
When does meteorological winter start?
When the majority of people think about the seasons they are thinking about the meteorological version.
It was dreamed up by scientist according to "sensible weather patterns" in order to keep records - in other words winter falls when temperatures tend to be at their lowest.
To make it even easier to observe conditions and make forcasts, the seasons are broken down into four equally-long periods of time using the Gregorian calendar, meaning each season is exactly three months. The issue of Earth's elliptical orbit of the Sun is handled by having a leap year every four years, when an extra day is added to February. That's a day more winter.
So meteorological winter 2026 begins - as it always does - on December 1 and the last day will be February 28.
When do the clocks ‘spring’ forward in 2026?
Next year the clocks go forward at 1am on Sunday, March 28, 2027.
It marks the start of British Summer Time (BST), with more daylight in the evenings and darker mornings.
BST, also known as Daylight Saving Time, was initially designed to help people maximise their sunlight hours throughout the year.
It was created following a campaign by British builder William Willett with the Summer Time Act of 1916.
Mr Willett wrote about his idea in his 1907 pamphlet called The Waste of Daylight, in which he proposed that days were made longer in the summer so he could play golf for longer.
After much lobbying, Mr Willett's idea was introduced to the UK a year after his death. Shortly after, Germany and Austria also introduced Daylight Saving Time.
Now, most countries in mainland Europe also change their clocks in summer and winter.
It was thought that the new way of observing time would make the most of natural sunlight and conserve energy, which was essential during World War I when coal was limited.
The logic was that it was pointless to waste electricity when there was actual daylight still to be used.
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