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Australia's 'longest day' of the year is here

Source Weatherzone Mon 22 Dec 2025

The Southern Hemisphere’s summer solstice has arrived, making Australia’s longest day of the year based on the time between sunrise and sunset. For those living south of the equator, the summer solstice marks the moment the South Pole reaches its furthest tilt towards the sun. This orientation causes the year's maximum daylength across the Southern Hemisphere on the date of the solstice. Image: Difference in the amount of reflected solar radiation between the Southern Hemisphere’s summer solstice (top) and winter solstice (bottom), showing the Southern Hemisphere’s increased exposure to the sun on the date of the summer solstice. Source: NASA This year’s summer solstice occurred at 3:03pm UTC on December 21, which was 02:03am AEDT on December 22 and 11:03pm AWST on December 21. This time difference means WA had its longest day on Sunday, December 21, while the rest of Australia has its longest day on Monday, December 22. While the amount of time between sunrise and sunset reaches a peak for all of Australia on the date of the summer solstice, daylength increases the further south you are in the country. Hobart will see close to 15 hours and 22 minutes between sunrise and sunset on December 22, while Darwin’s day will only be 12 hours and 52 minutes, a difference of 2.5 hours. The difference is even greater between Thursday Island in far northern Queensland and Recherche in southern Tasmania, which have 2 hours and 41 minutes difference in their day lengths. Image: Summer solstice sunrise and sunset times on the Weatherzone app for Recherche, Tas. Image: Summer solstice sunrise and sunset times on the Weatherzone app for Thursday Island, Qld. Following the summer solstice, days will start to become shorter, and nights will get longer across Australia. This trend will continue for the next six months until the date of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice in late June 2026. - Weatherzone © Weatherzone 2025