Sunrise over Stonehenge on the summer solstice, 21 June 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
…. and shortest night of the year occur tomorrow, Friday 21st June.
It’s the summer solstice! Also known as midsummer (for example, ‘midsummer night’ in Shakespeare’s plays), it is in fact (astronomically) the beginning of summer as a season.
The term summer solstice is actually the moment when the earth is most inclined towards the sun – and will happen at 5.04a.m. GMT tomorrow morning, . It’s really a Northern Hemisphere event; the Southern Hemisphere will be having its winter solstice today – which we have around the 21st December. It’s most commonly thought of as happening on the 21st June, but there’s often a day in it – as you can see from the US Navy data below.
| Summer | 2013 | June | 21 | .05:04 |
| Summer | 2014 | June | 21 | .10:51 |
| Summer | 2015 | June | 21 | .16:38 |
| Summer | 2016 | June | 20 | .22:34 |
| Summer | 2017 | June | 21 | .04:24 |
| Summer | 2018 | June | 21 | .10:07 |
| Summer | 2019 | June | 21 | .15:54 |
| Summer | 2020 | June | 20 | .21:44 |
You can read more here (Spanish)
Summer solstice, Stonehenge
Finally, for those of you who are interested in the dates and times of the winter solstice:
| Winter | 2013 | Dec | 21 | .17:11 |
| Winter | 2014 | Dec | 21 | .23:03 |
| Winter | 2015 | Dec | 22 | .04:48 |
| Winter | 2016 | Dec | 21 | .10:44 |
| Winter | 2017 | Dec | 21 | .16:28 |
| Winter | 2018 | Dec | 21 | .22:23 |
| Winter | 2019 | Dec | 22 | .04:19 |
| Winter | 2020 | Dec | 21 | .10:02 |
Enjoy the San Juan fiestas!
Worthing shoreline and pier at sunset
Summer solstice at Stonehenge
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