SUMMER SOLSTICE. The summer solstice takes place on June 21, 2022. This date marked the start of the summer season and the longest day of the year. Discover all the explanations for this astronomical phenomenon, which contrary to what one might think, does not always happen on June 21.
[Mis à jour le 22 juin 2022 à 7h30] The summer solstice took place on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 11:13 a.m. This astrological phenomenon called “solstice” occurred when the sun was farthest from the Equator. A situation that coincides with the maximum or minimum period of the day on Earth. For example, the summer solstice always occurs twice a year, involving reverse seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres (the summer solstice is for late December in the southern hemisphere). So the the sun set at 9:57 p.m. in Paris on June 21, after illuminating the capital for 16 hours and 9 minutes.
Contrary to popular belief, this astronomical event does not always “fall” on June 21: it can occur on a “22”, or even a “19” (although the next one is in 2488…). Regularly, it takes place on June 20. In short, its date deserves attention in order to understand, precisely, why it does not always take place on the same day.
In our northern hemisphere, the summer solstice, which marks the first day of the summer season on our calendar, occurred Tuesday, June 21, 2022, at 11 o’clock 13 minutes and 52 seconds very exactly according to the figures provided by theInstitute of Celestial Mechanics and Ephemeris Calculation (IMCCE). The next astronomical event not to be missed is thealignment of the planets this month of June.
How to define the summer solstice? It corresponds to the time of the year when the trajectory of the Sun, seen from the Earth, reaches its northern (in the northern hemisphere) or southern (in the southern hemisphere) maximum. In other words, during the summer solstice, at our latitudes, the Sun “passes” to its zenith, at the level of the Tropic of Cancer. In reality, it is not a movement of our star that produces this phenomenon, but the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. Indeed, the axis of our planet is tilted 23 degrees with respect to the plane of theecliptic, i.e. the plane on which the Earth moves relative to the Sun. We therefore have the illusion of the Sun moving across the sky. But a good diagram is sometimes worth more than a long speech…
Concretely, this phenomenon has many consequences that can easily be seen with the naked eye (and with a clock in hand). It is at the time of the solstice that the sun passes the highest in the sky at the moment of its zenith. : The shadows become as short as possible. The star can then pass, for example, at an altitude of 65° relative to the horizon. For comparison, at the time of winter solstice, the sun rises only 18° above the horizon. Another consequence: it is at this time that the star rises and sets most in the direction of the north (northeast in the morning, northwest in the evening).
Tuesday, June 21, 2022, day of the summer solstice but also the longest day, the sun set at 9:57 p.m. in Paris, according to the Kalendrier.com site, after lighting up the capital for 4:09 p.m. . HAS Brest, the star went straight down at 10:22 p.m. (for a total sunshine duration of 4:12 p.m. during the day!). HAS reindeer, the Sun set at 10:10 p.m. HAS Metz, he disappeared at 9:43 p.m. HAS Toulouse, the star set at 9:39 p.m. HAS Lyons, the sun set at 9:34 p.m. HAS Marseilles, the sun bowed out at 9:22 p.m. on June 21. To find out more about the sunset times according to the cities, go to the specialized site Calendar.com.
The most obvious consequence of the summer solstice phenomenon is the maximum lengthening of the length of the visible day. In Paris, this year 2022, the duration between sunrise and sunset reached 16 hours 9 minutes, its annual maximum. The star appeared in the east from 5:48 a.m. to disappear at 9:57 p.m. From the next day, the length of the day began to gradually decrease. First imperceptibly, then faster and faster until the autumnal equinox. The Latin etymology of the word solstice translates this progression: sol (sun) and sistere (to stop) recall that it is during this period that the length of the day changes the least rapidly.
If the length of the day reaches its maximum on the occasion of the solstice, it is not the same everywhere. The closer you get to the Arctic Circle, the more it increases. In the north of Norway, the Sun hardly goes below the horizon: there is no night, strictly speaking. There, the Sun completely stops setting from the summer solstice at the level of the Arctic Circle. In the southern hemisphere, the phenomenon is reversed. At the time of the summer solstice in our lands, Antarctica is plunged into darkness. Be careful though: if it is theoretically at the time of the summer solstice that the sun rises the earliest in the morning or sets the latest in the evening, this principle is not always rigorously exact. In question, the slightly elliptical course of the Earth around the Sun, marked by accelerations and decelerations. The irregular shape of our planet also plays a role.
This is simply explained by the Gregorian calendar, as the site explains. Numerama. The latter was adopted in 1582 and provides that a year lasts 365 days, except for leap years which occur every four years and during which there are 366 days with the addition of a February 29. In fact, more than 365 days are necessary for the Earth to make a revolution around the Sun, it needs precisely 365 days, 5 hours and 48 minutes. The decision to include leap years in the calendar was made to erase the gap between the length of a year and the time of revolution. And this explains the shift of the summer solstices.
Overall for the summer season, average temperatures will be higher than normal in France. To sum up, the summer of 2022 will have to face “more frequent anticyclonic situations than normal, and therefore the continuation of hot and dry anomaly conditions” summarizes the site of Meteo France.
While the phenomenon also falls on the day of the music festival, the summer solstice traditionally gives rise to the great fire festival of the Saint Jean, which is celebrated every June 24 thereafter. This festival honors the summer season by drawing inspiration from the worship of the sun during Antiquity. An initially pagan practice of celebrating the harvests taken up by the Catholic Church, which Christianized it to set it up as a festival of light, in particular thanks to the famous fires of Saint John lit at nightfall.
In our northern hemisphere, the summer solstice corresponds to the longest days of the year. The lapse of time between sunrise and sunset can exceed 16 hours, against just 8 hours at the end of December at the time of the winter solstice. The phenomenon arises from the natural inclination of the Earth with respect to the plane on which it revolves around the Sun. Without this shift, the seasons as we know them on our planet would not exist! In our regions, the summer solstice therefore marks the beginning of the summer season. Halfway to the equinoxes of spring and D’fall, when night and day have exactly the same duration. What makes it a very special date.
The date of the summer solstice is generally the first piece of information that we seek to know among gardeners, lovers of the warmest days or simply among those who like to be fixed on the ball of the seasons. On this point, it is relatively simple: the summer solstice usually occurs on June 21. But beware, there are still exceptions. In 2016, for example, it was scheduled for Monday June 20 at 22:34 GMT. France living at GMT+2 since the time change, it did take place, in France anyway, on June 21 at 00:34.
But it can happen, as in 2008, 2012 or 2020, that the summer solstice occurs on June 20. This phenomenon can also occur on June 22, as was the case in 1975 (the next occurrence will take place in… 2203). Rarer still, the summer solstice can finally arrive on June 19th. It will be in 2488. Because the exact moment of the solstice changes every year. It is a question of correctly evaluating the trajectory of the Earth in relation to the Sun, and of our ability to model our time system and our calendar on these astronomical movements. In effect, the calendar year (365 days) does not correspond to the tropical year, that is to say the exact time taken by our star to revolve around our star (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds). If this “shift” is corrected by the leap yearsthe elliptical trajectory of the Earth also plays a role in shifting the solstice each year.
Here are the dates on which the summer solstices will occur in the following years:
- Summer Solstice 2023: June 21
- Summer Solstice 2024: June 20
- Summer Solstice 2025: June 21
- Summer Solstice 2026: June 21