It has been a fairly cool start to June thanks to the plentiful rainfall which has made it feel not very summer-like. That will change in the coming days, but more importantly summer officially starts tonight!
Summer Starts!
The Summer Solstice occurs this year at 10:42PM EDT tonight: Friday, June 20, 2025. At this moment, the Earth’s northern hemisphere will be at it’s highest axial tilt towards the sun, roughly 23.44º. This axial tilt is the reason for the seasons, and it all has to do with the length of daylight. The longest days of the year occur around the summer solstice. On the summer solstice itself North Georgia will receive nearly 14.5 hours of sunlight, compared to only 9 hours and 50 minutes around the winter solstice.
The higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere are currently experiencing the 24 hour daylight and “midnight sun”. Locally, the sun will rise at 6:21AM and set at 8:49PM. Interestingly, due to the Earth not being perfectly round nor orbiting in a perfect circle, our actual latest sunset won’t come for about another week when we see 16 days in a row of 8:50PM sunsets from June 21st to July 6th.
Heat comes later….
You may notice that while the summer solstice marks the time when the sun is highest in the sky, it doesn’t actually coincide with the warmest part of our climate. For Cornelia, the hottest day of the year on average comes around July 14th, nearly a full month later. This is known as seasonal lag.
While there is quite a bit of land in the northern hemisphere, there is still a considerable amount of water. Our climate relies on the ocean for many, many things including temperatures. It takes time for the sun to melt the ice around the poles, and to warm up the oceans from their winter temperatures. Thus, water temperatures reach their peak after the summer solstice since the sun angle remains high for some time to come.
A history of celebration
The summer solstice has been historically significant for thousands of years. In many places around the world the summer solstice marks the middle of summer, rather than the beginning, known smartly as midsummer. This is the case in most Germanic speaking countries as well as much of Northern Europe. In these places May Day marks the beginning of summer.
One of, if not the, most popular celebrations in the world occurs at Stonehenge. Each year thousands of people pack the area to watch the sun both rise and set aligned with the rocks. While there are other monuments around the world built the same way, nothing has quite the mystique of Stonehenge with it’s giant rock structure.
Photo by Nik at Unsplash
Here in Georgia, we’ll be celebrating by enjoying some sunshine and heat. Saturday will be the first full day of summer, so grab some sunscreen and a towel and head to the lake or a river to enjoy it!
