In the United States and the rest of the northern hemisphere, the first day of the summer season is the day of the year when the Sun is farthest north (on June 20th or 21st). This day is known as the  Summer Solstice.

The declination of the Sun on the Summer Solstice is known as the tropic of cancer (23° 27').  In the southern hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are exchanged so that the Summer Solstice is the day on which the Sun is farthest south.

A common misconception is that the earth is further from the sun in winter than in summer. Actually, the Earth is closest to the sun in December which is winter in the Northern hemisphere.

As the Earth travels around the Sun in its orbit, the north-south position of the Sun changes over the course of the year due to the changing orientation of the Earth's tilted rotation axes. The dates of maximum tilt of the Earth's equator correspond to the Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice, and the dates of zero tilt to the Vernal Equinox and Autumnal Equinox.

The reason for these changes has to do with the Earth's yearly trip around the sun. For part of the year the Earth's North Pole points away from the sun and part of the time toward it. This is what causes our seasons. When the North Pole points toward the sun, the sun's rays hit the northern half of the world more directly. That means it is warmer and we have summer.

The day of the summer solstice is the longest day of the year. The length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a maximum for the year. In the United States, there are about 14½ hours of daylight on this day.

The table below gives the universal time of the summer solstice. To convert to U. S. Eastern daylight saving time, subtract 4 hours, so the summer solstice occurs on June 21, 1998 at 10:00 a.m. EDT; June 21, 1999 at 15:47 (3:46 p.m.) EDT; and June 20, 2000 at 21:36 (9:36 p.m.) EDT.

Note that the times below were calculated using SummerSolstice in the Mathematica application package Scientific Astronomer, which is accurate to within only an hour or so, and in practice gives times that differ by up to 15 minutes from those computed by the U.S. Naval Observatory (which computes June 21, 1999 at 19:49 UT instead of 19:47 UT and June 21, 2000 at 01:48 UT instead of 01:36).

Date	UT	Date	UT	Date	UT
06-21-1980	05:37	06-21-1990	15:36	06-21-2000	01:36
06-21-1981	11:25	06-21-1991	21:24	06-21-2001	07:24
06-21-1982	17:13	06-21-1992	03:13	06-21-2002	13:11
06-21-1983	23:00	06-21-1993	09:00	06-21-2003	18:59
06-21-1984	04:49	06-21-1994	14:48	06-21-2004	00:48
06-21-1985	10:37	06-21-1995	20:35	06-21-2005	06:36
06-21-1986	16:24	06-21-1996	02:24	06-21-2006	12:23
06-21-1987	22:12	06-21-1997	08:12	06-21-2007	18:11
06-21-1988	04:01	06-21-1998	14:00	06-21-2008	00:00
06-21-1989	09:48	06-21-1999	19:47	06-21-2009	05:47

June is the traditional start of Hurricane Season in the United States. Hurricane Season in the Atlantic runs from June 1st to November 30th. Most hurricanes occur from mid-August to late October.

City of Ottawa beaches officially opened under sunny skies Saturday, just in time for the first day of summer. Britannia, Mooney's Bay and Westboro are open to swimmers. However, downstream of Ottawa, Petrie Island remains closed due to high E coli levels.

Many feared that more of Ottawa's beaches would not be open this weekend. Recent testing has shown E. coli levels at Westboro Beach have been up to five times what the health department considers safe.

Questions about the water quality of Ottawa's beaches have swirled through the spring after the city admitted to a massive sewage leak a few years back.

Petrie Island, located in Ottawa's east end, was closed for 45 days in 2006 after a valve malfunctioned, spilling more than 900,000 cubic metres of biological waste into the Ottawa River.

High pollution levels have already closed two beaches in the Kingston area. Kingston's Crerar Beach and the Big Sandy Bay on Wolfe Island are showing high levels of E. coli. Finally, it's not pollution, but high water levels that has closed the popular Leamy Lake Beach in Gatineau. This week's incessant rainfall has caused the lake to rise to levels deemed unsafe for swimming. Five other beaches within the boundaries of Gatineau Park remain open.

WOODLAND HILLS - Dressed in a black T-shirt, black jeans and black sneakers, Eric Mont tried hard to keep cool under the scorching sun Saturday as he zipped from one location to another delivering pizzas in the West Valley.

When he stopped back at Zanos Pizza Kitchen on Ventura Boulevard for another pickup, he made sure to take a detour to the restaurant's 32-degree walk-in cooler.

"I usually stay in there five minutes," the 18-year-old said.

All over the San Fernando Valley residents - including some without power - struggled with triple-digit temperatures on the first day of summer. Some headed to the pools and beaches, while others, cowed by high gas prices, sat at home and blasted the air conditioning.

High temperatures in the Valley hit 109 in Chatsworth and Van Nuys, 107 in Woodland Hills and Burbank, 106 in Northridge and 102 in Pasadena.

The 92-degree temperature recorded Saturday morning at Los Angeles International Airport broke the facility's record high for this date of 90 degrees in 1973. Record highs also were recorded in Long Beach (100) and Camarillo (92).

"It's not uncommon for Southern California to get this warm but it is uncommon for this time of year," said Todd Hall, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Valley residents will feel a slight relief today when temperatures drop 3 to 5 degrees, Hall said.

Monday will bring lower temperatures with highs in the low to mid-90s in the Valley and mid-70s to 80s in the coastal areas.

Scattered power outages Saturday and three closed city pools didn't help the cause.

On Friday, more than 8,000 Valley customers of the city Department of Water and Power lost their electricity, as the utility experienced a near-record demand, but most were restored by Saturday morning.

Still, there were at least several thousand Valley homes that were without power at various times Saturday.

Karen Conemac, a senior citizen living in Northridge, said her power remained out all day Saturday. When she called the DWP to complain, she was astonished at the citywide list of communities she heard that lost power. Nearly all were in the Valley.

"This is ridiculous," she said. "Where has the money gone that we paid (in utility bills and taxes)?

"Why is the Valley being picked on?"

Without air conditioning, Conemac had to rely on cool water to keep comfortable - though she was also mindful that the state is suffering a drought.

And she couldn't leave her home for an air-conditioned mall or a county cooling center because she has a dog and several cats, including a blind 22-year-old feline, that she needed to tend with occasional sprays of cool water.

DWP spokeswoman Terry Schneider said there was a simple reason that there were more outages in the Valley: It was hotter there. Some coastal areas, she noted, were almost 40 degrees cooler than the Valley.

"And the temperatures overnight didn't go down very much," she said. "It doesn't allow our equipment time to cool down. It's definitely customer demand combined with this extreme, unprecedented heat. This is very unusual for June."

There were about 1,020 customers in Canoga Park that lost power Saturday afternoon, Schneider said, and a few hundred in Sunland-Tujunga. There were also about 20 neighborhoods that experienced tiny outages - perhaps four or five homes in each.

The utility only had a few outages in what she referred to as the "metro" area - anywhere besides the Valley.

By Saturday evening, Los Angeles city firefighters responded to at least 16 heat-related calls, half of them in the Valley, said department spokeswoman d'Lisa Davies.

"That's quite a few, especially when the majority of them are elderly," she said.

The city maintains 18 public pools in the Valley, but three of them - in Reseda, Pacoima and Sylmar - are closed for repairs for much of the summer.

Those that are open were packed on Saturday.

At the Woodland Hills Recreation Center pool, Gloria Dejesus sat on a towel putting on suntan lotion in the broiling sun.

"I usually don't go to pools but it has been so hot," said Dejesus, 26. "All I could think of is `I need to find a pool."'

Her boyfriend found the pool locations online and they decided to spend the afternoon in and near the water. As she tanned on the pool deck, about 40 swimmers frolicked in the water.

She has been staying inside her Tarzana home during the recent heat wave and only ventures out to walk her dog. She usually sees bike riders on her way home from her administrative assistant job in Woodland Hills - but not lately.

"There is nobody out," she said. "It is too hot to be out."