Posted on 06/21/2018 6:45:41 AM PDT by SandRat
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Happy summer solstice.
We in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet called Earth are tilted closest to the sun. According to the National Weather Service, the earth will have reached its maximum tilt at 3:07 a.m. today.
Most of you probably missed the moment, but you can still celebrate. It’s the longest day of the year in terms of hours of sunlight, and we’ll continue to have more daylight than nighttime until the September equinox. It’s also the official start of summer, though we here in SoCo have had plenty already.
A climatologist in Alaska says we will have 14 to 14 ½ hours of daylight. North of the Arctic Circle, the sun will never set.
What to do? If you had planned ahead you could be visiting Stonehenge — you and thousands of other people.
The solstice sun shines right through the outer stones to the altar. You can catch a rerun of the livestream on YouTube. Catch some rays (with a good sunscreen) on your lunch hour, or enjoy the extra daylight in a park or back yard. The solstice is a highlight of the natural year, Midsummer Night. Think elves and fairies dancing in flower wreaths. Shakespeare followed this theme to its fantastical end with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Lovers run madly through the forest, identities are confused, and the Queen of the Fairies falls in love with an ass.
It’s probably Shakespeare’s most accessible work, and when well-done, a lot of fun to watch. There are plenty of versions on YouTube. Many people light bonfires on the solstice, but we’re not suggesting that after years of drought.
Speaking of drought and water, do see the Water|Ways exhibit at the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum.
It’s a Smithsonian travelling exhibit covering everything about water: how we use it, keep it, waste it, and how we need to preserve it.
The exhibit has stunning photos and interactive video, but every presentation emphasizes that each of us uses water every day, and we must be ever-conscious of our relationship with this finite resource.
The current exhibit is free to Bisbee residents through June, and it will be hosted by the Henry Hauser Museum in Sierra Vista Jan. 12 to Feb. 25.
So, I guess that means we’re on the downhill to winter? LOL! Still got snow on Mt. Rose and Slide Mountain.
I’ve recently read that the current Stonehenge is simply a reconstruction of nearly leveled ruins.
I always wonder...if Solstice is June 21...then why do our hottest temperatures come in August? I guess because the snow does melt and that means higher LINGERING temperatures? But it probably has more to do with lack of cloud cover for the next couple of months mostly in our neck of the woods...
Well because it takes that long to get the glow bull warming engines up to operating temp. ;-)
Just what I need. Have to stay up longer waiting for the kitties to decide it’s night and time to come in and they think it’s time to get up earlier.
That’s from global warming’. But just to be clear: if there was no snow that would also be global warming
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