Winter solstice is Wednesday, sometime a bit after noon, Alaska ... to sun-starved northerners that the light will return. The sun will soon rise higher in the sky and be above the horizon longer.

Around the winter solstice, the sun seems to rise and set at the same point on the horizon for a few days before it begins to climb higher again, heralding longer days. In the Northern Hemisphere ...

After getting 30 minutes of daylight, the town of Utqiaġvik, Alaska ... sun is within 6 degrees below the horizon. In Utqiaġvik, civil twilight ranges from roughly 3 hours on the winter solstice ...