Believe it or not, despite the hot weather Monday, the Sun was at its farthest point from the Earth than at any time during the year. If you looked indirectly at the Sun yesterday, it might have appeared a little smaller than usual. That's because the Earth reached a point called Aphelion during its annual orbit around the Sun.
Earth at Aphelion is farthest to Sun, while it is closest to Sun at a point called Perihelion. Though our planet typically reaches Aphelion and Perihelion in July and January respectively, the actual dates vary from year to year. Aphelion happened yesterday when the Earth was 94,511,923 miles away from the Sun. Perihelion was on January 3, when Earth was 92,955,807 miles from the Sun.
Sunlight is roughly about seven percent less intense in July than it is at our closest approach to the Sun in January. You may be left wondering why we still feel the intense Summer heat in July if we're actually farther away from our nearest star. That’s because Earth’s seasons are determined by the tilt on its axis and not by its distance from the Sun.
All planets in our solar system travel around the Sun in elliptical orbits, and that causes the four seasons and the length of daylight. Our days are actually getting shorter now that we've reached the first week of July. In fact, since June 21, the Summer Solstice, we've lost seven minutes of daylight. Sunrise was at 5:25 this morning, as opoosed to 5:19 on the first day of Summer.
Another sunny and quite warm day is in store as the mercury climbs into the mid and upper 80s this afternoon. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, hot, and more humid with a high of 85 to 90. A front will arrive Thursday bringing scattered showers and thunderstorms, and they will linger into Friday with highs in the low-to-mid 80s. The weekend, though, should be mostly sunny and warm.
Paul
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