6/20/08 Summer Starts Today! Along With A Few Fun Facts.

What will you be doing tonight at 7:59? That is when we transition from spring to summer. Of course around here, summer has already started…or at least feels like it. The break from the heat has been nice be we all know, more of the relentless heat will return. Look for the 90s again next week.

While the start of meteorological summer (June 1st) makes more sense locally, its the sun’s placement in the sky that determines the start of summer. The longest day of the year known as the Summer Solstice derives from the Latin terms, “sol”= sun and “stice”= to stand still. As the days lengthen the sun gets higher and higher in the sky until on this day (sometimes 21st and 22nd ), the sun appears to stand still before being slightly lower the next day. This has to do with the Earth’s 23.5-degree tilt. We are closer to the sun during the summer solstice than any other day. Today the sun will be directly over the Tropical of Cancer just south of Florida. When we transition into fall, the sun will be directly over the Equator.

How about a few tid-bits to celebrate the start of summer.

Ever wonder why June is such a popular month to get married? In early civilization, the Druids' celebration of the day as the "wedding of Heaven and Earth" resulted in the present day belief of a "lucky" wedding in June.

After the wedding comes the honey moon, right, well Pagans called the Midsummer moon the "Honey Moon" for the mead made from fermented honey that was part of wedding ceremonies performed at the Summer solstice.

Midsummer? Well awed by the great power of the sun, European civilizations have for centuries celebrated the Summer Solstice, otherwise known as Midsummer..think Shakespeare.

Midsummer was thought to be a time of magic, when evil spirits were said to appear. To thwart them, Pagans often wore protective garlands of herbs and flowers. One of the most powerful of them was a plant called 'chase-devil', which is known today as St. John's Wort.

Every year a “Woodstock” like celebration takes place a Stonehenge to celebrate the Solstice.

I am often asked, if we are closet to the sun in late June, why is usually hotter in July and August? The quick answer is that the ocean waters take longer to heat up. Since our weather is dominated in the summer months by a warming Gulf of Mexico, we tend to get hotter well into summer. High pressure over Bermuda will force that air north into the southeast U.S.

Have a great summer!

See you soon,

Brian