Today, December 21st, marks the shortest day of the year in Ireland and the northern hemisphere.

Daylength in Dublin has shortened to just under 7 hours and 30 minutes today with sunrise at 08:38 and sunset at 16:08.

Although this is the shortest day, the winter solstice, sunset has been getting a little bit later over the past few days with today's contraction in daylight hours coming from a later sunrise.

From here the days will gradually lengthen even if, typically, our winter weather remains dull and grey for several weeks as the coldest months of winter are yet to arrive.