A solstice occurs twice a
year when the sun is at its furthest distance away from the equator (June and
December). An equinox also occurs
twice a year, but it happens when the sun physically crosses the imaginary line
in the sky above the Earth’s equator (March and September). This year, our northern hemisphere summer
solstice for the USA will occur on June 21.
Here are some interesting facts
about the June solstice:
·
A solstice (or equinox) will occur at the exact
same moment of time for every location on the earth. For a June solstice in the northern hemisphere, it will be the moment
the sun reaches its highest point in the northern sky, (Tropic of Cancer)
·
For June 2021, the summer solstice moment will
occur at 10:32 pm CDT on Monday, June 21
·
The daily daylight length will continue to get shorter
between the June solstice and the December solstice
·
The exact date and time of the solstice will
vary from year to year, but will occur between June 20th and 22nd
depending on the various time zones across the planet. A June 22nd solstice is quite rare for North America as the last one occurred in 1975 and the next one is not forecasted until the
year 2203
·
If you live on the Arctic Circle, you will
experience the one day a year without a sunset, and conversely, if you live on
the Antarctic Circle, you will experience the one day a year without a sunrise
·
The Earth does not move at a constant speed in
its elliptical orbit around the sun, therefore the seasons are not of equal length. Roughly speaking for the northern hemisphere,
the spring season is 92.8 days in length, summer is 93.6 days, autumn is 89.8
days, and thankfully, the winter season is the shortest at 89.0 days
·
The inconsistent speed of the elliptical orbit
also creates variability in the amount of daily daylight loss or gain
throughout the year
·
The direction of tilt, or amount of tilt in the
earth in relation to the sun does not alter over the course of the year. The seasons change because of a hemisphere’s
relation to the sun as the earth orbits.
In June, the northern hemisphere points towards the sun, in December,
the southern hemisphere points towards the sun
·
The Summer Solstice date will provide 16 hours 2
minutes of daylength for Grand Forks, ND
·
Conversely, the shortest day of the year (Winter
Solstice) for Grand Forks, ND will result in only 8 hours and 23 minutes of
daylight
·
It’s interesting to note that the daylight hours
on the longest day of the year (16 hrs 2 min), do not match the darkness hours
on the shortest day of the year (15 hrs 37 min) for Grand Forks, ND.
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