Category: GS1L – Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes
SUMMER SOLSTICE
22, Jun 2019
- Summer Solstice 21 June is longest Day in Northern hemisphere of globe.
- In the northern hemisphere, summer solstice, or longest day of the year, takes place between June 20 and 22 each year.
What Exactly Happens:
- Summer Solstice
- There are two solstices each year – one in the winter and one in the summer. The summer solstice occurs when the tilt of Earth’s axis is most inclined towards the sun and is directly above the Tropic of Cancer.
- It might seem like a day to celebrate, but it actually signals the moment the sun’s path stops moving northward in the sky, and the start of days becoming steadily shorter as the slow march towards winter begins.
Winter Solstice-
- At the winter solstice, the Earth’s axis is tilted furthest away from the sun directly over the Tropic of Capricorn bringing only a few hours of daylight.
- In the southern hemisphere the dates of the two solstices are reversed. The winter solstice occurs on the same day in June and the summer solstice the same day in December.
- The term ‘solstice’ derives from the Latin word ‘solstitium’, meaning ‘sun standing still’. Some prefer the more teutonic term ‘sunturn’ to describe the event.