Summer Solstice brings Summer heat

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - There are many dates that may be considered as the beginning of Summer. The last day of school. Memorial Day. June 1, meteorological summer*. The Summer Solstice. That last one, though, is recognized as the official start. Today is the Summer Solstice.

The Summer Solstice is also recognized as the longest day of the year**. The day, of course, isn’t any longer. The time from sunrise to sunset, however, is the longest of the year. About 14 hours and 24 minutes.

From now until the Winter Solstice, December 21, the amount of daylight will shrink a bit each day.

Today’s weather will be much like yesterday. Mostly sunny to partly cloudy, breezy, humid, and hot. Highs will range from the upper 80s in the far northwestern KCBD viewing area to just above 100 degrees in the eastern viewing area.

The “cooler” temperatures in the northwest are due to more cloud cover and the showers possible there.

Each day for the rest of the work week will be mostly sunny, a bit breezy, and hot. Temperatures will gradually edge up Wednesday through Saturday. Lubbock-area highs will climb from the mid-90s today to near 100 degrees Friday and Saturday.

Dry weather will prevail Wednesday through Saturday.

Our next chance of storms, showers, and rain, begins Saturday night. Current data suggests a slight chance of rain early next week. I’ll keep checking the data in the days ahead with updates here and on-air (every morning on both KCBD NewsChannel11 and Fox34).

* Meteorological Summer

Most people are familiar with astronomical Summer, which runs from now, the fourth week of June, through the third week of September. That’s from the Summer Solstice, today, to the Autumnal Equinox (September 22, 8:03 pm CDT).

The meteorological seasons, however, begin and end three weeks before the astronomical seasons. Meteorological Summer runs from June 1 through August 31. Autumn from September 1 through November 30. Winter from December 1 through February.

Climatologically, the last three weeks of a season are more similar to the following season than their own - i.e. The first three weeks of June are typically (and this June have been) a little more summer-like than spring.

Also, matching the seasons to even months simplifies record keeping and makes compiling statistics considerably simpler.

** In the Northern Hemisphere. It is the “shortest day” of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.

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