The following post was written by MaiCherish Harris, Elms College student and NEPM summer intern:
Today a unique change signals the start of summer– the summer solstice! The summer solstice is the day that has the longest period of sunlight all year.
This happens when one of Earth’s poles is closest to the sun. In the northern hemisphere, this happens towards the end of June. Exactly 6 months later is the winter solstice, the shortest number of daylight hours.
To learn more about the summer (and winter) solstice, here are two links from PBS Learning Media:
Summer Solstice — a short clip from all about the holidays that explains both the summer and winter solstice. It is geared at children grades PreK – 3.
Changing Daylight in Summer and Winter — a video with a polar view of Earth that shows the changing amounts of daylight that Boston experiences at the summer and winter solstices.
There’s also an article from PBS NewsHour entitled The science behind the summer solstice.