A summer solstice is the moment in time when the Earth's tilt towards the Sun is at its maximum and the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky. A summer solstice occurs twice a year, once in June in the Northern Hemisphere (also called northern solstice, June solstice and Midsummer) and once in December in the Southern Hemisphere (also called southern solstice and December solstice).
In the Northern Hemisphere the day of the summer solstice is the longest day of the year (the day with the most daylight and the shortest night) and occurs every year between June 20 and June 22. The dates given on this page are based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which for practical purposes is equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). While the summer solstice occurs at the same moment in time all over the world, the date and local time differ from place to place depending on the year and a location's time zone. For locations that are ahead of UTC (further east) it may fall on the day after, and for locations that are behind UTC (further west) it may fall on the day before. To find out the exact date and time of the summer solstice 2019 in your area use this seasons calculator.
The summer solstice marks the end of spring and the beginning of summer in the hemisphere where it occurs and is one of four days (two equinoxes and two solstices) throughout the year on which a new season starts. The other days are the vernal equinox (also called spring equinox, beginning of spring), the autumnal equinox (also called fall equinox, beginning of autumn) and the winter solstice (beginning of winter).
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June Solstice
The June solstice is called the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. It's the longest day of the year, as the Sun travels a longer, higher arc in its daily journey across the sky. Following the June solstice, the Sun's path gets increasingly lower each day heading toward the September equinox, followed by the January solstice, or winter solstice. (The situation is flipped in the Southern Hemisphere, where this is the winter solstice, and the shortest day of the year.)
The term "solstice" comes from Latin and means "the Sun stands still." Over the course of the year, the Sun's arc across the sky is always moving higher or lower each day, except on the solstices. These are the brief moments when the Sun's arc halts this upward (northward) or downward (southward) movement and then heads the other way.
The time between seasons, solstices and years on other planets is different! It can be much longer or much shorter.
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