First day of Summer

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- For meteorologist, summer starts at the beginning of June, but the Summer Solstice marks the beginning of astrological summer and the longest day of the year.

Even though the Earth is located farther away from the sun in June then in December, it’s the tilt of the Earth that causes the seasons. The Summer Solstice is the day when the North Pole is tilted closest to the sun, which means the sun is located directly over the Tropic of Cancer. The Tropic of Cancer is located at 23.5° latitude North, and runs through Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and southern China. For all the areas north of the Tropic of Cancer (including the United States), the sun is at its highest point in the sky, making June 21st the longest day of the year.

There will be just about 15 hours of daylight here in Ohio for the next two days but the amount of daylight people get on the solstice depends on where they live. Those in Florida will only see about 14 hours of daylight, while those in northern Alaska will have 24 hours of sun.

However, even though Thursday is the longest day of the summer, it won’t be the hottest. Because the ground and water take longer than the air to heat up, the hottest average temperatures won’t occur until July. After Thursday, the sun will slowly start to drift back toward the equator, causing days to get shorter again. By the time we reach the Winter Solstice in December, we’ll have lost about 6 hours of sunlight.