The longest day, what does this mean to you? Does this mean that you had a long tortuous day full of trials? Was it a day of waiting for something that you wanted to do? Or, was it a day like Yesterday that had the most hours of daylight?

We all have our different meanings for the phrase, and we have to look at context to figure out which sense of the phrase is being used.

Of course, since today is the first full day of Summer, I will be talking about the most hours of daylight. When you travel, the different lengths of days is all of a sudden very visible. When not traveling, most Americans enjoy the slow, steady progression of the seasons. We are either seeing slightly shorter periods of daylight each day in Summer and Fall and slightly longer periods in Winter and Spring. We do not always notice the daily changes as they are not that great. However, over time, we notice the changes as we go about our daily routines. More time to get outdoor chores done when we get home from work, or maybe we now are commuting to or from work in the dark.

When you travel, the changes can be extreme. When you travel between the Southern and Northern hemisphere around a Solstice time, you can have large shifts in the amount of daylight you have in a day. I have been to Australia several times during December, it is great to all of a sudden have much longer days when I arrive there and not so nice to all of a sudden have really short days when I come back home.

Of course, not all changes are quite so extreme, but they can still be noticeable. A change in latitude such as Texas to Minnesota can also bring shorter or longer days. A change from one edge of a time zone to the other is also noticeable. When I was a kid, we moved from Iowa to Kansas. In Kansas, we were near the boundary between Central and Mountain time and Sunset was alway much later than what we were used to. Of course, Sunrise was delayed as well.

So, what has been my longest day? My Sister and I were very close to the Antarctic Circle in mid February a couple of years ago. When we went to bed well past Midnight on the night when we were the farthest South, you could still see light on the Southern horizon. We did not see the sunrise, as it was already full daylight when we were up early the next morning. Someday I plan a trip North of the Arctic circle in Summertime. It would be neat to experience a full day of daylight.

Steven