First Day of Summer, Minnesota – Earliest One in Over 2 Centuries

When we hear that today is the first day of summer, some will say that we have had summer since Memorial Day.  And meteorological summer does begin on Memorial Day and runs through Labor Day. But, officially, astronomical summer begins on the summer solstice, which is today, June 20th at 3:50 pm.

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This is the earliest that we have had the summer solstice since George Washington was the president.  That is more than 200 years ago.  There were only 16 states in the union, if that gives you any idea how long ago that actually was.

The early summer solstice has somthing to do with the fact that it is a leap year.

From USA Today:

The early solstice is due to the complex dance between Earth's yearly orbit around the sun and its daily rotation, along with how we mark the solstice on our calendars. Quirks in the Gregorian calendar mean the solstice will make another jump earlier every leap year until the year 2100.

The other reason that there is a solstice, both winter and summer is because the earth is on a tilted axis.  I think we all learned that in grade school.  But WHY is it on an axis?

The reason we have solstices, equinoxes and seasons is because the Earth is tilted on its axis, thanks to a random collision with another object untold billions of years ago. 

Well, thank you to whatever UFO that actually was that ran into the planet.  And how big was this unidentified flying object?  Because the earth TILTED when it hit it.  So, there's that.  Aliens.  Or not.