Happy Summer

Summer arrives at 14:06 EDT today and it is the longest day of the year. The sun rose over eastern Ontario at 5:15 this morning and will set at 8:53 tonight. That will give us 15:38 minutes of daylight. Sadly the days begin to shorten from here.

According to www.almanac.com the timing of the summer solstice depends on when the Sun reaches its farthest point north of the equator. This usually occurs annually sometime between June 20 and 22, announcing the beginning of summer. The word solstice is from the Latin solstitium, from sol (sun) and stitium (to stop), reflecting the fact that the Sun appears to stop at this time.

The weather will be partly cloudy today with a good chance of thunderstorms later this afternoon after 2pm. A cold front may trigger some severe weather as well this afternoon in eastern Ontario and Upstate New York with some small hail and gusty winds. The weekend looks sunny and seasonable on Saturday and unsettled with more thunderstorms and humid Sunday. Highs will be in the 22-26C range (72-78F) for the next 4 days.