Summer solstice

By Kathy Farley 
Submitted to Corner Post

You’ve heard the word solstice mentioned, but do you know what it means? There’s one coming up soon, so let’s review. The word solstice is roughly translated as “sun standing still” because its movement appears to pause before reversing its path. A solstice occurs twice each year — when the Earth's tilt toward the sun is at a maximum (summer) and minimum (winter). When this takes place in the northern hemisphere in June, the sun reaches its northernmost and highest elevation, and we enjoy our longest day of the year (in terms of daylight hours). Conversely, when the winter solstice occurs in December, the opposite holds true.  

Interestingly, in the southern hemisphere conditions of the summer and winter solstices are reversed! As we are heading into warmer days of summer, and coming up on the longest day of 2025, our counterparts in South America and Australia are preparing for colder weather and their shortest day. Northern hemisphere summers are warmer than the winters, but winters in the southern hemisphere are warmer than summers. 

For residents in this region, summer solstice will occur at approximately 9:42am on Friday, June 20. The daylight hours on that day will be 5 hours and 38 minutes longer than on December 20, 2025 (the winter solstice). Because an astronomical year is actually 365.25 days long, the summer solstice can occur as early as June 20 or as late as June 22.