Summer solstice 2024: Season to have its earliest start since 1796

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Summer solstice 2024: Season to have its earliest start since 1796

The summer solstice, marking the year’s longest daylight period, officially occurs Thursday at 4:51 p.m. Eastern time. Here’s why it’s a day early.

By Justin Grieser
June 19, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT


Revelers gather at the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice near Salisbury, England, on June 21, 2023. (Kin Cheung/AP)

Summer is arriving a bit earlier than usual this year, and not just because a major heat wave is baking the eastern United States and Canada this week. Thursday’s summer solstice — the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere — is the earliest in 228 years, since 1796, when George Washington was president.

The 2024 summer solstice arrives June 20 at 4:51 p.m. Eastern time, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. A day later, on June 21, the full moon will rise at 9:08 p.m. Eastern. The “strawberry moon” is the lowest full moon of the year, staying close to the horizon as the sun soars to its highest point in the sky.

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(Justin Grieser)

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The reason for the seasons


On the June solstice, Earth's Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun. (NASA)

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(NOAA)

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