Wednesday marks 1st full day of summer

Spring is waning while Summer is right on our doorstep.

At 11:24 p.m. Tuesday, the Summer Solstice will occur.

The reason for the timing? The sun, which is 93 million miles away from Earth, will direct its rays on top of the Tropic of Cancer at exactly 11:24 p.m. officially marking the beginning of summer.

There are a couple of interesting things about this. First of all, the Earth has a tilt of 23.5 degrees.

This tilt allows for different seasons to occur because as the Earth revolves around the sun, heating is displaced. There’s more heating during our summer, making it hot, less heating during the winter, equating to cold air. With that said, the Tropic of Cancer happens to be 23.5 degrees latitude north of the equator.

What does this really mean for us? The sun is at its highest angle out of any other time of the year. That means our skin can burn quicker, and this is the time of year where we pick up the most daylight.

From now until the Winter Solstice in December, the amount of daylight will shrink slowly each day.

Enjoy the early sunrises and late sunsets. You can send your weather pictures to pix@wkrn.com.

Courtesy of WKRN’s News 2