Summer Solstice (Longest Day of Year) Today! (+ Pictures)

If you love sunshine, today is the day for you! It is the longest day of the year today, also known as the summer solstice.

Interestingly, without knowing this, I woke up today at about 6:30 (a little earlier than preferred) and it was so light I exclaimed, “What the heck?! Is it noon?” — I wasn’t worried that was true, knew the actual time, but it was so sunny I couldn’t believe it.

This is especially extreme for me here in Poland because we are at such a northern latitude. Spending the first 22 years or so of my life in sub-tropical Florida, these extremely long (or extremely short, like the winter solstice) days are insane to me.

Anyway, yes, today (June 21, 2011) is the summer solstice and it IS sunnier (if it’s not cloudy where you are) than the other days of the year. From here on out, it’s all downhill from you sunshine lovers.

A little more info on what the summer solstice is and why it’s the longest day of the year?

Here you go, a nice image from NASA:

Basically, if you’ve forgotten or didn’t pay attention to your elementary school lessons on this, the Earth is ’tilted’ and, as it slowly revolves around the Sun throughout the course of the year, each hemisphere slowly gets more and more sunshine while the other one slowly gets less and less sunshine. So, while it is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere today, it is the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.

Sunrise & Sunset Pics

In honor of the summer solstice, I thought I’d pull a few beautiful sunrise and sunset pictures from flickr (nice to take a look at such beautiful pis whenever there’s an occasion to :D). Here you go:

Sunrise

Sunset

Photos via le ninerskhalid almasoudExtra MediumVijay Bandari – Moved to other accountesther**http://www.flickr.com/photos/nattu/895220635/sizes/m/in/photostream/ on flickr.

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