Summer countdown

The solstice is the moment the Sun reaches its northernmost point in the sky, directly above the Tropic of Cancer. It is a single instant, not a whole day, and it gives the northern hemisphere its longest daylight of the year. In London the Sun is up for about 16 hours and 38 minutes, in Stockholm for nearly 19, and north of the Arctic Circle it does not set at all.

Because the calendar year is not exactly 365 days, the moment shifts by roughly six hours each year and then jumps back after a leap day. The UTC dates ahead are June 21, 2027, June 20, 2028, June 21, 2029 and June 21, 2030. In 2029 the solstice comes shortly before 02:00 UTC, which is still the evening of June 20 across the Americas; local dates can differ from the UTC one. The time zone converter translates a UTC moment into any local time.

Weather services use meteorological seasons, which follow whole calendar months so that statistics compare cleanly year to year. Meteorological summer in the northern hemisphere runs from June 1 to August 31, three weeks before the solstice. If you think of summer as starting with June, your countdown is about 20 days shorter than this one.

In the southern hemisphere the seasons are reversed. Summer begins at the December solstice, around December 21 or 22, or on December 1 by the meteorological definition, and Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires reach their longest days when Europe has its shortest.

Midsummer festivals cluster around the solstice: Sweden celebrates Midsummer Eve on the Friday between June 19 and 25, and Stonehenge opens for sunrise on the morning of the solstice. Peak-season flights and rentals for July and August often book months in advance, so the countdown is also a reminder to reserve early; for an exact gap to your own vacation date use the days between dates calculator.