Today is the Winter Solstice or shortest day of the year, at least for the southern hemisphere (in the northern hemisphere today is the Summer solstice / longest day of the year). Technically the sun stands still - just before it changes direction - at 14h26 South African time (12h26 UTC) today and Earth's southern hemisphere is most inclined away from the sun. This is why getting up to deal with a crying child in the small hours of the morning currently sucks so much.
Most people (including a sadly large number of geeks, some of which I work with ;-) seem to believe seasons are caused by the changing distance between the Sun and the Earth as the Earth orbits, but this isn't true - seasons are caused by our planet's tilted axis and the amount of sunlight a hemisphere gets throughout the year.
If you think our planet's seasons and the weather they generate are extreme, think again - we actually have a very stable climate.
Wikipedia Solstice Article
NASA's APOD
NASA New Science article
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