When does summer start?
THE weather has been nothing but unpredictable so far this year from snow at Easter to this May being the coldest May in 25 years.
As Brits look to enjoy the longest season of the year, here are the all-important 2021 dates you need to look out for.
When does summer start in the UK?
There are a couple of ways of calculating when the season starts, depending on whether you mean the astronomical summer and the meteorological summer.
The meteorological summer is defined as June, July and August, so always begins on Thursday, June 1 and ends on August 31.
This year the astronomical summer starts on Monday, June 21, on a day which is known as the summer solstice.
Around this time we will enjoy the most daylight of the calendar year, as the sun reaches its most northern point in the sky at noon, local time.
Summer will come to an end on September 22.
How is the first day of summer decided?
The seasons occur as the Earth’s axis is on a tilt from the sun, so different parts of the world receive more solar energy than others.
They can be calculated using both astronomic or meteorological methods.
The astronomical seasons are based on the Earth’s journey around the sun, with the four quarters of the orbit determining our four seasons.
The meteorological seasons are based on splitting the calendar up into four chunks of three months each.
Loosely the seasons are defined as Spring (March, April, May), Summer (June, July, August), Autumn (September, October, November) and Winter (December, January, February).
What is the summer solstice?
The summer solstice is the "longest" day of the year and marks the start of the summer period.
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This is because the tilt of the Earth’s axis is most aligned with the sun, providing us with the most daylight of the year.
After June 21, the nights will begin to close in as our planet rotates with the northern hemisphere tilting further from the sun.
The winter solstice is on December 21 and is when the Earth's North Pole tilt is furthest from the sun.