New York Today: Hello, Summer (Jonathan Sheklow)

For some of us, summer starts after Memorial Day.

For others, summer begins when we bite into watermelon as we sit in a dripping-wet bathing suit.

But as far as our calendrical markers go, the summer solstice today is the official start to the season.

Sunrise on this longest day of the year occurred at 5:25 a.m. in New York, and sunset will be at 8:31 p.m., bestowing upon us 15 hours of golden rays.

(On the winter solstice, in comparison, we get a meager nine hours and change of daylight.)

“The axis we orbit around is tilted relative to the sun, so the height of the sun in the middle of the day changes throughout the year,” said Dr. Ashley Pagnotta, a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History.

“In the winter, the sun doesn’t get very high at all — it’s up for a shorter amount of time, so it’s colder — versus in the summer the sun gets much higher and travels a longer path through the sky.”

And on the summer solstice, the sun climbs its very highest.

In New York, that’ll happen today at 12:57 p.m., when, as you slurp your fast-melting lunchtime Popsicle, the sun will be roughly 73 degrees above the horizon.

Around that time we should be approaching today’s high of 81 – with plenty of sunshine to boot.

So get it while it’s hot: The days will start getting shorter from here on out.

Source: NYTimes