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  • It's almost time for a very special day.

  • Can you guess why?

  • [Squeaks squeaks]

  • No, it's not my birthday … [Squeaks squeaks]

  • No, it's not the day of the parade, either.

  • It's the longest day of the yearand, it's the first official day of summer!

  • There are lots of days that might seem really long.

  • Maybe you've felt that way when you were excited about something that's going to

  • happen, like your birthday, or the first day of vacation.

  • The day before an exciting event can seem like it takes a long time.

  • But even if a day feels that way, it's not really any longer.

  • All days have the same amount of time in themabout 24 hours.

  • When we say it's the longest day of the year, what we really mean is that there's

  • the longest amount of daylight, which means that the sun is up for the longest amount

  • of time, and it's dark for the shortest amount of time.

  • This special day is called the summer solstice, and when it happens, it's officially summer.

  • Have you ever noticed that in the winter it gets dark pretty early?

  • It's probably dark before you go to bed.

  • But in the spring and summer, like now, the sun goes down much later.

  • [Squeaks squeaks]

  • Yeah, that's exactly what you asked about the other day!

  • Squeaks asked if he could change his bedtime so it's after dark, since he doesn't like

  • going to sleep when it's still light out.

  • But instead we just changed his curtains so they make the room darker, and that helped,

  • right?

  • [Squeaks squeaks]

  • We have a summer solstice every year because of the way our planet moves around the sunand

  • how it's tilted.

  • Because even though you don't feel it, the Earth is always moving!

  • It takes a whole year for the Earth to go around the sun one time.

  • And while it's moving around the sun, Earth is also spinning around in place around an

  • imaginary line we call the axis.

  • The Earth's axis runs up and down, right through the North Pole and the South Pole.

  • One turn on the Earth's axis takes 24 hoursthat's what makes one day.

  • But there's something else about the Earth's axis: it isn't exactly straight up and down.

  • It's tilted, just a little bit.

  • and it's this tilt that causes the summer solstice!

  • Right now, the tilt is pointing the northern, or top half of the Earth toward the sun.

  • Which means that during one spinwhich remember, is 24 hours, a whole day and night

  • the top half of the Earth spends more time in the sun than in the dark.

  • The summer solstice is when the tilt is pointing us exactly toward the sun.

  • Here in the top half of the world, that's usually on June 21st, although it's sometimes

  • on June 20th or 22nd.

  • Soon, the tilt will start to point more sideways compared to the sun, and eventually it will

  • face away from the sun, on what we call the winter solstice.

  • That will be the shortest day of the year, with the least amount of sunlight.

  • But for now, while we're pointed toward the sun, we get long days!

  • For people who live in the southern, or bottom half of the world, everything is the opposite.

  • When the Earth's tilt points the top half of the world toward the sun, it points the

  • bottom half away from the sun.

  • So for people who live in places like Australia or South America, it's about to be the shortest

  • day of the year, not the longest!

  • Their winter solstice is the same day as our summer solstice, and their summer solstice

  • is the same day as our winter solstice!

  • Since it's almost our summer solstice and the first day of summer, I'm going to go

  • stock up on sunscreen!

  • Squeaks and I hope you have a happy solstice, wether it's summer or winter!

  • Thanks for joining us!

  • If you want to keep learning and having fun with Squeaks and me, hit the subscribe button,

  • and don't forget to check us out on the YouTube Kids app.

  • We'll see you next time, here at the Fort!

It's almost time for a very special day.

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