Summer Officially Arives Today!

Summer Solstice

On June 21, the sun is at its highest point in the sky at every location north of the Tropic of Cancer and it's the longest day of the year (length of daylight). In fact, the farther north you travel the longer length of daylight.

For example, in Dublin, Ireland (latitude of 53 degrees), the sun r today at 4:57am local time on June 21 and will not set until 9:57pm local time. That's 17 hours of sunlight.


Meanwhile, here in Broad Channel (at a lower latitude of 40 degrees), the sun rose this morning at 5:25 am and will set at 8:29 pm - a total of 15 hours and 9 minutes of daylight.
 
Soon after the summer solstice, the length of daylight in the northern hemisphere will gradually grow shorter each day up until the winter solstice in December when the shortest amount of daylight occurs.


In case you're interested, the autumnal equinox falls on September 23, 2011 at 5:04am ET.