Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year: here’s what happens
In the northern hemisphere, which includes Italia, it does not always fall on the same day or at the same time, but generally varies between 20 and 22 June. This year, the summer solstice occurs at exactly 10.24 am on 21 June
It marks the astronomical start of summer. The day with the longest hours of daylight in the whole year, the “summer solstice”, is now just around the corner. In the northern hemisphere, which includes Italia, it does not always fall on the same day or at the same time, but generally varies between 20 and 22 June. This year, the summer solstice occurs exactly on 21 June, at 10.24 am.
The Longest Day
The summer solstice in the northern hemisphere coincides with the day that has the longest daylight hours of the whole year.
‘Il Sole fermo’
The word ‘solstice’ derives from the Latin solstitium (a combination of sol, ‘sun’, and sistere, ‘to stand still’). On this day, in fact, the Sun appears to pause in the sky at its highest point (the peak of its maximum declination) before reversing course and beginning to descend towards the celestial equator.
The start of the southern winter
The solstice occurs twice a year, once in summer and once in winter. At the time of the solstice, the sun is directly overhead at the so-called tropics in its orbit. Whilst Italia officially enters astronomical summer, in the southern hemisphere (for example, in Australia or South America) the exact opposite occurs: there, it is the winter solstice, i.e. the shortest day of the year.
