With May Day or Beltane barely over the horizon, we reach the actual date for the start of Solar Summer, 7 May. Beltane is the traditional cross quarter day celebrating this event, but the true midpoint between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice falls a bit later in the calendar. The date marks the beginning of what is solar summer, the quarter of the year with the most potential sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere. (Our Southern Hemisphere friends whose seasons oppose ours are now entering their solar winter.)
The days continue to lengthen until we reach the solstice, but the daily rate of change slows from its peak at the equinox to is lowest value at the solstice, then the slow descent begins as we begin to see day lengths fall. The end of solar summer and start of solar autumn falls around the next crossquarter day Lammas on 1August.
Learn More From These Relevant Books Chosen by The Weather Doctor
I have recently added many of my lifetime collection of photographs and art works to an on-line shop where you can purchase notecards, posters, and greeting cards, etc. of my best images.
