Summer solstice arrives Sunday night, marking year's longest day.
The West is sweltering, and the East is steamy, too, just in time for the summer solstice. Sunday marks our longest day and shortest night of the year and the first “official” day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
This year’s solstice straddles two calendar days, arriving at 11:32 p.m. Eastern time on June 20. In North America, Sunday will bring the most daylight, while in Europe and Asia, Monday will technically be the longest day of the year, though just by a few seconds.
What happens on the solstice?
Humans throughout history have celebrated the summer solstice with rituals such as bonfires and ceremonial dances to mark the passage of the seasons.
On the June solstice, the sun’s vertical rays strike the Tropic of Cancer, a line of latitude 23.5 degrees north of the equator. Geographically speaking, it’s the northernmost point where the sun appears straight overhead (90 degrees above the horizon) all year. In the Northern Hemisphere, daylight reaches its annual peak, and the sun takes its longest and highest path through the sky.
The reason we have solstices, and seasons, is because Earth doesn’t orbit the sun completely upright. Instead, our planet is tilted on its axis by about 23.5 degrees, which means one hemisphere receives more of the sun’s light and energy at different times of year.
On the June solstice, the Northern Hemisphere leans most toward the sun, giving us longer days and more intense sunlight. It’s the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where June 21 marks the start of winter and the shortest day of the year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/06/20/summer-solstice-2021/?
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