Summer has finally arrived! June solstice is TODAY as Earth's north pole is tilted most closely towards the sun

20/06/2024

The summer solstice will occur at 21.51 BST this evening in the NorthThis is the earliest date the summer solstice has occurred since 1796

After weeks of dreary weather, it won't just be pagans celebrating summer's arrival today.

The summer solstice today will give Britons their longest day of the year and shortest night, with a full 16 hours and 38 minutes of daylight in London.

At 21:51 BST this evening, the Northern Hemisphere will be at its most tilted towards the sun, marking the exact peak of the astronomical summer.

But this year summer has arrived almost a full day early, with today marking the earliest solstice since 1796.

But, unfortunately, the experts say this won't give us an extra day of summer.

Summer solstice - when Earth's pole is titled at its greatest extent towards the sun - marks the height of the astrological summer and will bring Britain its longest day of the year

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As the Earth orbits the sun in its yearly cycle, it also turns on its axis exposing different parts to the sun's light – creating the cycle of days and nights.

If the Earth's axis was directly perpendicular to the sun's rays, every part of the planet would get 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.

Of course, the Earth does not orbit the sun in this way but is actually tilted on its axis.

Dr Daniel Bayliss of Warwick University says: 'Most planets have some tilt with respect to their orbits around the sun.

'The tilt of Earth is likely due to large collisions impacting the young Earth when it was forming in the early solar system.'

The solstice is the moment at which the Earth is maximally tilted towards the Sun, exposing the Northern hemisphere to sunlight for a bigger part of the Earth's rotation

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It is this tilt which gives Earth the regular progression of the seasons and creates the solstice.

Jack Foster, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, told MailOnline: 'Our planet is tilted on its axis at an angle of 23.4 degrees, and as it orbits the sun sometimes the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun and sometimes it is tilted away.'

This means that different parts of the planet get different amounts of daylight throughout different parts of the year.

When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun in the summer, we are exposed to daylight for a greater part of the Earth's rotation.

Likewise, in the winter when the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, our days get shorter since we are exposed to the sun for less time.

This is why regions within the Arctic Circle have 24 hours of daylight during some parts of the year and 24 hours of night at others.

NASA graphic explains the difference between the solstice and the equinox. The solstices take place in June and December; the equinoxes take place in March and September

At the Summer solstice, the Sun will appear directly overhead at noon from the Tropic of Cancer, reaching its highest point in the sky

This tilt gives us the cycle of the seasons, marked by the summer and winter solstices and the 'vernal' and 'autumnal' equinoxes (when night and day are equal length).

In 2024, the exact moment of the summer solstice will arrive at its earliest in 228 years.

Mr Foster says: 'While the summer solstice often occurs on the 21st June, this is not always a given.

'Earth’s orbit around the sun does not perfectly align with our calendars, allowing the solstice to shift between the 20th, 21st and 22nd June depending on the year.'

While our calendars only have 365 days, the Earth actually takes 365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes to make its way around the sun or 365.24219 24-hour days.

That means our calendars actually miss a quarter of a day each year, slowly getting ahead of the actual pattern of the seasons.

Of course, to make up for those leftover quarter days, we add an extra day every four years making it a leap year.

However, just adding a leap year still doesn't quite sync up our calendars with the Earth's orbit.

There are two equinoxes every year - one in March and another in September - when the sun is directly above the equator and day and night are of equal length

There are two equinoxes every year - in September and March - when the Sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night is nearly equal. During equinoxes, we experience pretty average temperatures and equal lengths of day and night

On the day of summer solstice 2024 - the longest day of the year - people head to the sea at King Edwards Bay in Tynemouth to celebrate

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By adding an extra day every four years we are pretending that we are losing exactly 0.25 of a day each year – but in reality we are actually losing 0.24219 days.

While that might not seem like very much, over decades those decimal places begin to add up and our calendars slowly slip out of alignment.

This means that, every leap year the solstice gets 45 minutes earlier.

We correct for this by skipping leap years on century years that aren't divisible by 400 – making 1600 and 2000 leap years but not 1700, 1800, 1900, or 2100.

This makes the average length of the day every so slightly shorter, fixing our calendar's slipping problem, but it only resets every 400 years.

So the summer solstice will keep getting earlier every leap year until the calendar resets in 2100.

At Stonehenge, modern pagans will gather to watch the sun rising through one of the stone arches. Many believe Stonehenge to have been built so that it would align with the seasons

Midsummer is still celebrated around the world. Sweden's flower-themed celebrations were showcased in horrific fashion in the film Midsommar starring Florence Pugh (pictured)

Around the world, the solstice is marked by celebrations due to its close connection to the progress of the seasons.

At Stonehenge, modern pagans gather to celebrate the celestial event based on a belief that the ancient stone circle was built to align with the seasons.

The rising sun is framed by one of the stone arches on the morning of the solstice, leading many to suggest that it was built as some sort of calendar or site of seasonal worship.

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Across the UK there are also several Neolithic burial sites built in such a way that they are fully illuminated by the light of the rising sun on the solstice.

Elsewhere around the world there, is also rich evidence of religious practices based around the solstice as well as many festivals which continue to this day

For instance at the pyramid at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, a shadow falls on the ancient temple in the shape of the feathered serpent exactly on the solstice.

And across northern countries like Sweden and Latvia, there are still many flower-themed festivals held to mark the day.

However, for most people in Britain, the solstice is simply a day to enjoy a bit more sunlight than usual.

The weather for today will be warm and sunny across most of the UK, but experts say the temperatures will get warmer later on due to seasonal lag

In London, the sun rose this morning at 04:43 and won't set until 21:21, while in John O'Groats the sun will be up from 04:02 until 22:25.

But although it is the height of astronomical summer, this does not mean that the day will actually be any warmer.

Mr Foster explains: 'Despite the summer solstice providing us with the most solar radiation in a single day, the impact on temperature takes a bit longer to notice.

'This is because it takes time for the Earth’s atmosphere to warm up, the effect is not instant.

'We call this “seasonal lag”, and it means that we tend to experience our hottest temperatures later in the summer once the atmosphere has taken some extra time to heat up.'

So while the weather forecast for today predicts balmy temperatures across the country, you will have to wait a little while longer for summer to reach its true peak.

Of course, it means that after today the days ever so gradually get shorter, culminating with the winter solstice on December 21 – the shortest day of the year.

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