Summer Solstice- It’s the longest Day of the Year

Today is the Summer Solstice which officially kicks off the beginning of summer!

The summer solstice also marks the longest day of the year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

The amount of daylight only goes down from here….for the next six months

This year’s summer solstice takes place a day earlier than it’s been for the past three years, due to the fact that 2012 is a leap year—this February got an extra day, to keep our calendar year of 365 days in sync with the astronomical year, which is about 365.24 days.

So it’s time to enjoy vacations, great weather, pools, baseballs, and everything else that goes along with the favorite season of kids and most adults. Grab your sun protection and your favorite beverage and enjoy the season, because for some it maybe all too short.

Having a hard time getting to sleep with the light evenings? At least you’re not at the North Pole. The sun won’t be setting at all at the North Pole today, they will be ‘enjoying’ 24 hours of sunlight!

Whilst meteorologists claim today is the longest day of the year, as it’s also the last full day of the school year for my kids, it’s feeling like the shortest as I try to cram as much work in as possible!

If you ask me the longest day of 2012 is going be right around August 27th….the day before my precious little snowflakes GO BACK TO SCHOOL!

About sunnysleevez

I'm a freckly red head, originally from London now living in LA with 2 pale children. Frankly with our coloring we have no business being such an outdoorsy family and living in southern California. I grew up in a time when factor 8 sun milk was considered the best protection available to combat the hot rays of a holiday in southern Spain, that lead to 3rd degree burns and the rest of the vacation spent in the shade of our apartment. As a family we love to be outside, going to the beach, camping, swimming & hiking. We can't completely avoid the sun (nor should we) but taking sensible measures to avoid unnecessary UV damage is a priority. How do we do that? By staying in the shade in the middle of the day, wearing sun protective clothing (that's why I created Sunny Sleevez), a broad brimmed hat, UV rated sunglasses, using chemical-free broad spectrum sun screen on exposed areas & eating a healthy diet with as few chemicals as possible & lots of antioxidants.

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4 Responses to Summer Solstice- It’s the longest Day of the Year

Lynette says:

June 20, 2012 at 9:27 pm

I’m bummed because while it was sunny in Seattle today, we haven’t had. Much sun this ‘summer’ yet. And now the days are going to get shorter! Maybe I do need to move to the north pole.

curvyelvie says:

June 22, 2012 at 8:13 am

I agree with you the longest day is right before school starts.

Jim Brennan says:

June 28, 2012 at 7:14 pm

Beside this being a great and useful blog, you hit the ball out of the park with these pictures.

- sunnysleevez says:
  
  July 3, 2012 at 9:46 am
  
  Awww thanks Jim 😀