Summer Solstice 2027: the longest day of the year

What the summer solstice is

The June solstice is the moment the Sun reaches its farthest point north in the sky, when its apparent ecliptic longitude reaches 90 degrees. At that instant the Sun stands directly over the Tropic of Cancer, about 23.4 degrees north of the equator, and the North Pole is tipped as far towards the Sun as it ever gets. For everyone north of the equator it is the summer solstice: the longest day, the shortest night and the highest noon Sun of the year.

In 2027 the moment is 21 Jun, 14:10 UTC, which is 10:10 AM EDT on Monday, June 21, 2027 where you are. In the Sun path chart above, the June arc is the tallest and widest of the year: the Sun rises far round in the north-east, climbs to 72.7° at noon in New York, and sets far round in the north-west.

"Solstice" is from the Latin for "the Sun stands still". In the weeks before June 21 the sunrise creeps north along the horizon each morning; around the solstice it stops, and then it heads back south. The same pause happens to the Sun's noon height.

How long is the longest day?

It depends almost entirely on how far north you are. In New York the summer solstice brings 15h 06m of daylight. Miami, nearer the tropics, gets 13h 45m. London gets 16h 38m, Edinburgh 17h 36m, Helsinki 18h 56m and Reykjavik 21h 08m. The city table below has more than 30 places.

White nights and the midnight sun

Daylight is only half the story in the far north. In Reykjavik the Sun is only 1.8 degrees below the horizon at local midnight on the solstice, so the sky never gets darker than civil twilight, bright enough to read outdoors. Cities such as Helsinki, Stockholm and St Petersburg have "white nights" when the stars barely show. North of the Arctic Circle, at about 66.6 degrees north, the Sun does not set at all: in Tromso, northern Finland, Svalbard and northern Alaska it circles the sky for weeks. The planets and faint stars are hard to see from those places in June.

The latest sunset is a week after the solstice

Solar noon by the clock drifts later through late June, by about 15 seconds a day, so sunrise and sunset both slide later too. The result: the earliest sunrise of the year comes about a week before the solstice and the latest sunset about a week after it. In New York the earliest sunrise is around June 14 (5:24 AM) and the latest sunset around June 27 (8:31 PM). The solstice, between them, still has the most daylight in total.

From here the days get shorter

Change is slow at first: a few seconds a day for the first week or two. In New York the day shrinks from 15h 06m on the solstice to 14h 38m a month later, a loss of 28 min, and the pace keeps speeding up until the autumn equinox in September, when days shorten by more than two minutes a day.

Why summer is hot (it is not the distance)

The summer solstice is close to the time the Earth is farthest from the Sun. Aphelion comes about two weeks later, on July 5, 2027, at 152.1 million km, about 5 million km farther than in January. Summer is warm because of the 23.4-degree tilt of Earth's axis: in June the Northern Hemisphere leans towards the Sun, so sunlight hits the ground more directly and the Sun is up for longer each day.

The hottest weather comes later, usually in July or early August, because the oceans and land go on soaking up more heat than they lose for weeks after the solstice. Meteorologists count June, July and August as summer for that reason. Earth also moves at its slowest near aphelion, which is why the Northern Hemisphere's astronomical summer is the longest season, about 93.7 days. See the season lengths.

Where the Sun is overhead

Only places on the Tropic of Cancer get the Sun exactly overhead at noon on the June solstice: Baja California Sur in Mexico, the sea just north of Havana, southern Egypt a little south of Aswan, Oman, India, southern China and Taiwan. Nowhere in the mainland US or Europe gets an overhead Sun at all. In Honolulu the noon Sun is 87.9 degrees up on the solstice; Hawaii is south of the tropic, so its overhead "Lahaina Noon" days come twice a year, in late May and mid July.

How the world celebrates the summer solstice

Midsummer in northern Europe

In the Nordic and Baltic countries Midsummer is one of the biggest holidays of the year. Sweden keeps Midsummer Eve on the Friday between June 19 and 25, with dancing round a maypole decorated with leaves and flowers, flower crowns, pickled herring, new potatoes and strawberries. Finland's Juhannus, Norway's Sankthans and Latvia's Jani fall around June 23 and 24 with lakeside bonfires, and across much of Europe St John's Eve on June 23 has long been a bonfire night. Christianity attached the feast of St John the Baptist to these older midsummer customs. Modern Pagans call the solstice Litha, one of the eight festivals of the Wheel of the Year.

Inti Raymi in Peru

Inti Raymi, the "Festival of the Sun", was the great solstice festival of the Inca Empire, honouring the Sun god Inti. Because Cusco is south of the equator, it marked the winter solstice, the start of the Sun's return. The Spanish banned it in the 16th century; it was revived as a theatrical re-enactment in 1944 and is now staged every June 24 in Cusco, ending at the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, drawing visitors from all over the world.

Stonehenge

The main axis of Stonehenge points towards the midsummer sunrise in one direction and the midwinter sunset in the other. On the summer solstice the Sun rises close to the Heel Stone, seen from the centre of the circle. English Heritage usually opens the monument for free on the solstice morning, and crowds of more than 10,000 people often gather to watch the sunrise. Whether the builders cared more about the summer sunrise or the winter sunset is still argued; many archaeologists think midwinter was the main event.

Other solstice traditions

In China, Xiazhi ("summer arrives") is one of the 24 solar terms, beginning at the exact solstice moment; in parts of northern China people eat noodles that day. In Quebec, June 24 is Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, the provincial holiday. The longest day has also become World Music Day (Fete de la Musique, June 21) and the International Day of Yoga (June 21), both chosen for the solstice.

In the Southern Hemisphere it is midwinter

South of the equator the June solstice is the winter solstice and the shortest day: Sydney gets only 9h 54m of daylight. Many Pagans in Australia and New Zealand keep Yule in June, and Matariki, the Maori new year, is celebrated in Aotearoa New Zealand in the same season. The southern summer solstice is the December solstice, last on Monday, December 21, 2026. Set your city above to see your own numbers.