Hey Now It's The Sun ... And It Makes Me Feel
Today is the Summer Solstice and please, you don't need to be a pagan or Laplander to celebrate. It's funny how there are so many holidays pegged to the Winter Solstice but can you name any for the Summer Solstice? We recently read about some Scandavian holidays but we didn't know of any previously. Solstice is latin for sun stands still and that is music to our ears. So your weatherist decrees today Solday!
We all know that the Summer Solstice is the longest day of sunlight. The sun is directly ovehead at the Tropic of Cancer (just over 23 degrees north of the equator) at noon today. That makes it just over 14 degrees south of the Bay Area. Today there will be direct sunshine for 14 hours and 7 minutes, 4 seconds longer than yesterday and tomorrow. The Sun will set at 8:35pm!
Yet not only is the sun visible for the longest amount of time today it is as strong as you will feel it all year. It is really really close to us, so close take care not to jump too high without your foil beenie on. If the sun is not obscured it's a SPF 50 day for almost everyone. (We're surprised the Skin Cancer Institute hasn't least tried to make some awareness holiday out of it).
Another superlative for the solstice is that today is the longest Civil Twilight of the year. Civil Twilight begins before sunrise and ends after sunset when the center of the sun is geometrically 6 degrees below the horizon. At this point, in good weather, illumination is sufficient for objects to be clearly distinguished. Today Civil Twilight began at 5:16am and ends at 9:06pm which means a magnificent 15 hours and 10 minutes of unassisted visibility!
So get outside already it's Solday!