This is the shortest day of the year – the last day of autumn and the eve of the winter solstice. And thanks to overcast skies, Lawrence will have one of its dimmest days of the year.

“We’re not going to see a lot of sunshine this morning. It’s kind of dark out there. We will keep the clouds around,” Jennifer Schack, 6News meteorologist said.

At 8 a.m, the temperature was 25 degrees, the humidity was 68 percent, and winds were calm.

Schack said today’s temperatures will climb into the 30s today, topping out about 34 degrees by late afternoon, with mostly cloudy skies all day.

“I don’t think we see any sunlight until around 4 p.m.,” she said.

Schack said sunrise was at 7:36 a.m. and sunset will be at 5:02 p.m., giving the city only nine hours and 26 minutes of sunlight today.

“That’s the least amoung of sunlight that we’ll have,” Schack said.

The winter solstice, the first day of winter, will be Wednesday. That’s the darkest time of the year, when the days are the shortest and the nights are the longest in the Northern Hemisphere. Schack said the next few days will each bring nine hours and 26 minutes between sunrise and sunset. Then on Sunday the daytime will become nine hours and 27 minutes long. Then the days will gradually begin to get longer and the nights shorter until the summer solstice in June.

Overnight, the temperature will fall to a low of 17 degrees by early Wednesday morning, bringing a chilly start to the first day of winter.

However, the temperature will climb to 44 degrees by the afternoon, under mostly sunny skies and southwest winds 5 to 10 mph, Schack said.

The end of the week will bring much warmer temperatures, she said.

Thursday’s morning low will be 23 degrees, with the high reaching a more spring-like 53 degrees.

The high will reach 55 degrees on Friday afternoon and 43 degrees on Saturday afternoon, helping to melt off all of the snow on the ground.

“We’re not going to have a white Christmas,” Schack said.