HomeWHATWhat Day Is June 21st 2023

What Day Is June 21st 2023

Summer is finally here, which may come as a bit of a shock to Floridians who have been dealing with sweltering weather for weeks.

June 21 is the first official day of summer. Here’s what you need to know.

When is the first day of summer?

Wednesday, June 21, 2023, marks the summer solstice and the first official day of summer for the Northern Hemisphere. For the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the first day of winter.

What is the summer solstice?

There are two solstices. The winter solstice marks the day with the least amount of sunlight (the shortest day in the year) and the summer solstice marks the day with the largest amount of sunlight (the longest day in the year).

There are also two equinoxes, the vernal equinox in March and the autumnal one in September when the sun is exactly above Earth’s equator and day and night are the same length of time.

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The summer solstice occurs when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. In 2023, that will happen at on June 21, at 10:57 a.m. ET.

Why is the summer solstice the longest day of the year?

Earth

The Earth is tilted a bit, 23.5 degrees, on its axis. Because of that, different places on our planet get more or less sunlight as it travels around the sun at different times of the year. The summer solstice means that the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere has tilted as far as it can toward the sun and the sun’s rays are reaching as far north as they possibly can, giving us the maximum amount of sunlight we will get all year.

How long will the day be?

That depends on where you live. Most of the United States will see around 14-16 hours of daylight, with longer periods the farther away from the equator you get.

In Florida this year, it will range from about 13 hours and 45 minutes in Miami. according to the NOAA Solar Calculator, to about 14 hours and 7 minutes in Tallahassee. Residents of New York City will get just over 15 hours of sun. Or to get your full dose of daylight you could head to Anchorage, Alaska, which will see 19 hours and 22 minutes.

Why isn’t the summer solstice the same date every year?

The Gregorian calendar we use doesn’t precisely match up with the astronomical one, and we lose a bit of time every day. Every four years we add another day, the Leap Day, to catch up. The sun and Earth don’t bother with the paperwork, they keep zipping along, so solstices and equinoxes are usually within a range of days. The summer equinox generally occurs on June 20 or 21.

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Is the summer solstice the hottest day of the year?

Usually, no. The Nothern Hemisphere gets the most direct sunlight on the June solstice but the hottest day of the summer is generally in mid-to-late July along the east coast of the U.S.

That’s because oceans take longer than land to heat up and cool down, so for a few more weeks the amount of heat coming from the sun during the day continues to be greater than the amount of cooling at night on the Earth, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

When is summer over?

Summer ends with the autumnal equinox, so it runs from June to September.

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