ENID, OK - Wednesday, June 21 at 9:58am is the summer solstice this year in the Central Time Zone. It's the longest day of the year above the equator and the turning point after which the sun starts rising later and setting earlier. The solstice marks the official first day of summer, and has been celebrated for its symbolic importance since ancient times.
The summer solstice happens between June 20 and June 21 every year and formally occurs when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. At the exact same time summer starts in the Northern Hemisphere, winter starts in the Southern Hemisphere. The so-called "midnight sun" shines all day during the solstice in some parts of Alaska, Canada, Sweden and Finland.
This special day is bittersweet for some as it is the longest day of the year with the most sunlight, yet begins the journey back to days of shorter sunlight. Today, the sun rises farthest left on the horizon, and sets at its rightmost possible spot. Sunlight strikes places in your rooms that get illuminated at no other time.
The Earth spins on an axis tilted 23.5 degrees from the Earth's orbit around the sun. As a result, the most direct sunlight shifts between a band of latitudes of the Earth throughout the year, providing the change of seasons we know in the middle and higher latitudes.
Soon after the summer solstice, the length of daylight in the northern hemisphere will gradually grow shorter each day until the winter solstice in December, when the shortest amount of daylight occurs.
