It’s Official: June 20 marked the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere

Every year, the longest day of the year is also the official start of the summer season. The celestial event known as the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere occurred on Thursday for some and Friday for others. This is because the solstice is the actual time when the nearest star from our planet reaches the “farthest point north of the equator” and this varies depending on the time zone. Nevertheless, it is the beginning of summer for everyone north of the equator. Meanwhile, it’s Winter Solstice for those in the Southern Hemisphere.

Fact vs. fiction

The start of summer is not necessarily the hottest day of the season. The solstice may mark the day that the hemisphere gets the highest amount of sunlight, but temperatures do not typically reach very high levels. There is also a misconception that the Earth is closest to the sun during the Summer Solstice. In reality, distance has got nothing to do with the solstices at all. As a matter of fact, the Earth is farthest from the sun during the Summer Solstice.

Meet and greet

The most popular Summer Solstice celebration occurs annually at the ancient Stonehenge Monument located in the Salisbury Plain of Wiltshire in England, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This year, around 20,000 people gathered to witness the rising of the sun during the solstice which fell on Friday, June 21. Despite the cloud cover, the atmosphere was as festive as ever.

Aside from modern-day Druid gatherings at Stonehenge, midsummer, another term for the Summer Solstice, was celebrated by many other cultures in the past including the Egyptians, the Incas, and the Mayans. The celebration of the Summer Solstice was tied closely to the calendars of these agricultural civilizations.

High noon

This year, on the day of the Summer Solstice, the sun was at its most directly overhead position at high noon. However, for locations that are not along the Tropic of Cancer, the imaginary line that circles the earth parallel to the equator, the sun would have been directly overhead but a bit off. It is only along the Tropic of Cancer that this phenomenon occurs.

The days leading to the Solstice saw the sun’s path rising across the sky. At this point, the sun’s path across the sky has already begun to descend and it will do so for the whole duration of summer.

The tilt of the Earth

Grade school science class taught students that the planet they live in is tilted to one side in a north-south axis, at 23.4 degrees in relation to the plane of the solar system. This tilt results in different amounts of sunlight reaching different regions of the Earth as it revolves around the sun. Simplified, the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere is the day that the North Pole is tipped toward the sun the most. This brings the opposite end of the globe, the South Pole farthest away from the sun. Therefore, in the northern hemisphere, it is the longest day of the year while in the southern hemisphere, it’s the shortest day of the year.

Another astronomical phenomenon

This week, another astronomical phenomenon will occur. A “supermoon,” the largest of 2013 is coming soon, specifically on the 23rd of June, Sunday. On that day, the full moon will be the closest to the Earth than it will be all year.

Photo Credit: Summer Solstice over Stonehenge