From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
TRUSSVILLE — June 21 marks the first day of summer, also known as summer solstice.
If you’re looking for specific times, summer officially started at 5:37 a.m. today in Birmingham.
What is summer solstice? Well, when measuring the number of hours, minutes, and seconds of daylight, June 21 is the longest day of the year. Basically, all places north of the equator will have at least 12 hours of daylight today.
Alabama residents will be blessed with 14 hours, 23 minutes of daylight according to TimeandDate.com. New Yorkers will have exactly 15 hours, 5 minutes and 36 seconds of daylight, and Los Angeles will have 14 hours, 25 minutes and 31 seconds of daylight.
Why is this happening? Basically the solstice is based on the earth’s rotation around the sun and the angle of the earth’s tilt in relation to the sun. So on the first of summer, the north pole is at its maximum tilt toward the sun, and the sun reaches its highest point in the sky all year, causing more light to reach the northern hemisphere. This explains why today will be the longest day for us northern hemispherians.
Quite opposite occurs for those in the Southern Hemisphere making June 21 the shortest day and lI nest night of the year. Their summer solice occurs on Dec 21, where the northern hemisphere celebrates the winter solace.