The shortest days of the year will be wet and unseasonably mild

As the winter solstice approaches, daylight hours will keep growing a little shorter until Saturday, Dec. 21, the shortest day and longest night of the year.

The week leading up to the solstice will be wet and unseasonably mild on Long Island, forecasters said.

The solstice in the Northern Hemisphere marks the moment when the earth’s axis is titled at its farthest point from the sun, so the midday sun is at its lowest point in the sky.

In our hemisphere, it arrives when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn — the most southern latitude where the sun can appear directly overhead at noon. The line runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil, and South Africa.

The winter solstice, or Yule, was celebrated by pre-Christian Europeans to mark the end of the darkest days of the year; Christians then adopted pagan Yule traditions such as decorating with evergreens for Christmas.

The solstice "reminds us of our planet’s celestial rhythms," Jason Cousins, the president of the Amateur Observers Society of New York wrote to the group’s members. "The solstice is a moment to reflect on our place in the cosmos and appreciate the intricate balance that sustains our world."

On the solstice, early risers will have to wait until 7:17 a.m. to see the sun rise, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency. Sunset will be at 4:32 p.m.

The last days before the official start of winter will be wet and unseasonably warm. Rain arrives late Sunday night with overnight temperatures close to 40 F. The wet weather is likely to continue straight through Tuesday, with the chance of precipitation remaining at 80-90%, according to the National Weather Service.

Monday’s high should be 48, and Tuesday an unseasonable 58. The high on Wednesday will be around 53, and rain is likely again by Wednesday night. Later in the week, De temperatures are expected to drop, with highs of 47 Thursday — when the sun will finally emerge — 41 on Friday and 39 Saturday, with partly sunny skies for the darkest day of the year (but also a chance of snow flurries).

For those traveling early for the holidays, there’s a winter weather advisory for Monday morning four parts of the Hudson Valley and across southern Connecticut, where "mixed precipitation" and icy roads are expected, according to the NWS.

Modern pagans, including Wiccans, celebrate Yule as a "return of the light as the days begin to get longer," Helen Berger, a scholar at Brandeis University’s Women's Studies Research Center, wrote in The Conversation, and a time or reflection. The celebration usually involves bonfires, hearth fires or candles to symbolize the sun’s light.

Starting Sunday, Dec. 22, daylight hours increase again. The sunrise will still be at 7:17 but sunset will be a full minute later than the day before, at 4:33 p.m.