Summer Solstice 2019: When is the Summer Solstice? Is it the start of summer?

However, when speaking in meteorological terms, summer actually begun on June 1 and will end on August 31.

The meteorological year is defined differently to the astrological year, taking the months of the calendar and annual temperature cycles into account.

The summer solstice does not always fall on the same date and can actually occur any time between June 20 and 22.

This is because to slight variations in the widely-used Gregorian calendar, which has 365 days, and the solar year, the time it takes for the Earth to complete one revolution around the sun (365.242199 days.)

To ensure the calendar is synchronised with the seasons, we add an extra day to the year around every four years what is commonly called a leap year.