Latest news with #solstice
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
When is the first day of summer? Here's what to know about summer and winter solstice 2025
Warm, sunny days are getting longer as the first day of summer and the first heat waves of the season are upon us. Here's what to know about the summer solstice in June and the longest day of the year. Memorial Day weekend may have already kick-started the summer as school closings, graduations and summer vacations are swinging into full gear, but the official first day of summer is just days away. Friday, June 20, 2025, marks the first astronomical day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. It is also known as the summer solstice or June solstice and the longest day of the year. The official start of the June solstice will occur at 10:42 p.m. ET. in the Northern Hemisphere. What does this mean? When Earth arrives at the point in its orbit where the North Pole is as its maximum tilt (approximately 23.5 degrees from the celestial equator) toward the sun, it results in the longest day and shortest night of the calendar year, according to the Almanac. And so, it receives sunlight at the most direct angle of the year. The exact date can vary slightly between June 20 and 22 on any given year as it all depends on when exactly, the sun reaches its northernmost point from the celestial equator. In the simpler terms, the June solstice, also known as the summer solstice, is when the sun reaches its highest and most northern points in the sky — in the Northern Hemisphere. Because it is quite opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where the summer solstice or December solstice will occur on Dec. 21. For the last six months, the sun appeared to migrate on a northerly course in the sky and then at the moment of the solstice, the motion stops and then the sun will begin to move south, according to Space. The southern motion continues until the sun hits the lowest point below the equator and then stops again — marking the first day of winter or winter solstice. The word solstice literally means 'sun standing still.' Friday, June 20, 2025 will mark the longest day of this year, with approximately 15 hours 9 minutes of daylight. To check how many hours of sunlight you'll get and the sunrise/sunset times in your area, click here. Winter solstice 2025, which marks the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, will occur on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, 10:03 a.m. Eastern. Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025 will be the shortest day of this year, with approximately 9 hours 17 minutes of daylight. To check how many hours of sunlight you'll get and the sunrise/sunset times in your area, click here. This article originally appeared on Summer solstice 2025: When was the first day of summer?
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Michigan welcomes summer 2025. When will season, DST end?
Summer is here in Michigan with June 20 being the longest day of 2025. As the season kicks off, let's take a look at the coming months in the mitten state, from when summer ends to how long the state will remain in Daylight Saving Time. Here's what to know. Summer solstice — the longest day of the year and the start of summer — is June 20, 2025. In Detroit, sunrise is at 5:53 a.m. on June 20. Sunset is at 9:14 p.m. with 15 hours, 20 minutes of daylight, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. The summer solstice is when the Earth's northern hemisphere points most directly toward the sun, according to Earth Sky. "At this solstice, the northern hemisphere is most tilted toward the sun, by the maximum angle of 23.5 degrees. Conversely, the south is most tilted away, by the same amount," Earth Sky said. The moment when the Earth tilts most toward the sun is 10:42 p.m. June 20, 2025, according to the Farmers' Almanac. Daylight Saving Time is when "daylight" begins an hour later in the morning and lasts an hour longer in the evening, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The clock change allows the hour of daylight to stay coordinated with the time most people are active outside. Daylight saving time is supposed to save energy, since during the warmer months the majority of people will be outside and not home, which saves energy. Daylight Saving Time began at 2 a.m. on March 9, 2025. While it is often referred to as Daylight Savings Time, Daylight Saving Time without the "s" at the end is the correct term. The fall equinox — the end of summer and start of fall 2025 — will be Sept. 22, 2025, per the Old Farmer's Almanac. The equinox will occur at 2:19 p.m. Daylight Saving Time ends on Nov. 2, the first Sunday of November. The Detroit Free Press and Lansing State Journal contributed. Contact Jenna Prestininzi: jprestininzi@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How long until Daylight Saving Time ends in Michigan?
Irish Times
26-06-2025
- Irish Times
A Hill to Die On - Frank McNally on celebrating the summer solstice at Tara
Even the great archaeologist George Eogan thought the monuments at Tara could be an 'anti-climax', although to people like him, they were 'quietly spectacular'. Visiting the hill for the solstice last weekend, I was reminded of what he meant by the first part, at least. Viewed from ground level, the Mound of the Hostages, King's Seat, and Cormac's House are not much to look at: just a series of grassy bumps and hollows. But their great antiquity exercises a magnetic pull, clearly, even on non-specialists. Hence the large crowd of new agers, old agers, and agers in between who gathered on the hill to witness the sun go down on the longest day of the year. Some had been there since dawn, or earlier. Beside a Meath County Council sign saying 'No Camping, by order', there were a dozen tents of various sizes. In front of one, a trio of musicians played traditional tunes. Up at the king's seat, meanwhile, a woman chanted religious songs in a language that may have been Sanskrit. READ MORE Most people, however, were just sitting quietly, on the bumps or on various parts of the west-facing side of the slope. It was not a vintage sunset, thanks in part to a bank of low cloud on the horizon. And the relative lack of spectacle, combined with the undramatic nature of the monuments, added a strangeness to the sight of so many people sitting on a hill, gazing west. They looked like the wind-watchers of whom a character in Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman reminisces: 'People in the old days had the power of perceiving these colours and could spend a day sitting quietly on a hillside watching the beauty of the winds, their fall and rise and changing hues, the magic of neighbouring winds when they are interweaved like ribbons at a wedding.' A round of applause rippled around the place at one point. It wasn't clear if it this was for the sun, or for the woman chanting. Maybe it was for a trick performed by one of the many dogs people had brought with them. While admiring the Mound of the Hostages earlier, I had stepped in a more recent mound of something, left by one of the four-legged visitors. 'I can tell you which one it was,' a sun-watcher who witnessed my misfortune said, offering tissues: 'His owner made a big show of looking for a plastic bag but he was only letting on.' Then the sun, although still 10 degrees above the horizon, sank fully behind the cloud, breaking the spell. It was like Meath going 10 points down with five minutes left in a football match. Suddenly, the locals were all heading for the exit, to beat the traffic. *** Somewhere among the babble of conversations at Tara on Saturday, the phrase 'prophesies of Jeremiah' floated towards me on the breeze. I had to look it up later to remind myself that Jeremiah was a Hebrew prophet of c.600 BC, who was indirectly responsible for one of the madder episodes in Tara's history. That was in 1899, when a bunch of eccentrics called the British Israelites started digging the hill up in search of the Ark of the Covenant. Among other things, Jeremiah foretold the Jews' Babylonian captivity, while also prophesying the rise of a New Jerusalem in a place unknown. For the British Israelites, or some of them, that place was Meath. It was even argued that the prophet had founded it himself, after relocating to Ireland and becoming high king. The funny thing is, the freelance excavators of Tara were Anglo-Saxon unionists and imperialists. It might have been preferable for them to find the Ark in England. But Tara had the right mix of history, myth, and monuments. Securing permission only from the landlord, they dug up a site known as the Rath of the Synods, over howls of protest from nationalists and conservation groups. Arthur Griffith and WB Yeats were among those who campaigned against the vandalism, until ordered off the land by a man with a rifle. Maud Gonne lit a bonfire the landlord had meant for the coronation of a new king, and sang A Nation Once Again around it, to his chagrin. Eventually, as criticism mounted, the diggers gave up in 1902. By a happy coincidence, Tara is the subject of an essay in the latest issue of Irish Heritage Studies, the annual research journal of the Office of Public Works, which landed in my postbox recently. The main subject is archaeologist R A S Macallister (1870 – 1950), who pioneered the proper study of the site in his decades as UCD professor of Celtic archaeology. A young Macallister was among the critics of the 1899 escapade, which he called a 'national calamity'. His work led eventually to a government and Maud Gonne-approved excavation of the Mound of the Hostages in the 1950s. That got the British Israelites excited again. But although the studies added to the bank of knowledge about Tara's ancient history, there was still no sign of an Ark.
Al Arabiya
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Arabiya
Photos of Global Celebrations Marking the Start of the Summer and Winter Solstices
People are marking the start of the winter and summer solstices across the globe. North of the equator, celebrations welcome summer, while those in the south observe the beginning of winter. In Romania, dancers wearing crowns of wheat gathered for the Sanziene, or Fairies, a pre-Christian pagan celebration in honor of the tiny imaginary winged beings who come to earth as a symbol of fertility. Meanwhile, Lithuanians danced in the small town of Kernave, and Russians lit bonfires. In the US, a performer danced across the colors of Christopher Janey's 'Passing Light' solar sculpture that aligns each summer solstice at the San Antonio airport. In Spain, people watched the sun rise on a Barcelona beach coined 'The Night of San Juan.' South of the equator in Bolivia, Indigenous people gathered around fires and held up their hands to receive the first rays of sunlight in celebration of the Andean New Year of 5533, marking the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Associated Press
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Photos of global celebrations marking the start of the summer and winter solstices
People are marking the start of the winter and summer solstices across the globe. North of the equator, celebrations welcome summer, while those in the south observe the beginning of winter. In Romania, dancers wearing crowns of wheat gathered for the Sanziene, or 'Fairies,' a pre-Christian, pagan celebration in honor of the tiny, imaginary winged beings who come to earth as a symbol of fertility. Meanwhile, Lithuanians danced in the small town of Kernave and Russians lit bonfires. In the U.S., a performer danced across the colors of Christopher Janey's 'Passing Light' solar sculpture that aligns each Summer Solstice at the San Antonio airport. In Spain, people watched the sun rise on a Barcelona beach, coined 'The Night of San Juan.' South of the equator in Bolivia, Indigenous people gathered around fires and held up their hands to receive the first rays of sunlight in celebration of the Andean New Year of 5533, marking the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
