MUSCAT: The Sultanate of Oman will experience the longest day today (Sunday), with approximately 13 hours, 35 minutes and 33 seconds long as the country is to witness the summer solstice and the beginning of the Khareef Dhofar Season on Sunday, June 21.
The phenomenon of the longest day of the year occurs when the sun’s rays are perpendicular to the Tropic of Cancer at an angle of 23.5 degrees north. However, there will not be any change in the temperatures as these solstices and equinoxes do not necessarily mean a direct correlation.
Usually, the summer solstice always occurs between June 20 and June 22, and during 2024, which is a leap year, it always falls on 20 June. The exact date shifts each year slightly because the calendar year does not match exactly the time it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun.
Because the Earth’s orbit takes slightly longer than a calendar year of 365 days, the solstices occur slightly later each calendar year, until a leap day re-aligns the calendar with the orbit.
Although the solstice ushers in some of the most intense summer heat for the majority of the Sultanate of Oman, the Dhofar Governorate simultaneously begins to enjoy cooling mists and monsoon rains.
Speaking to the Observer, Al Gulanda Masoud Muslem al Rawahi, Member of Board and President of the Social Communication Committee at the Society for Astronomy & Space said that calculations confirm Sunday’s solstice, surface temperatures depend more on wind, heat waves, and air currents. Astronomically, summer starts now and runs roughly 93 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes.
“The longest day and solstice track weather shifts, not the calendar seasons. Oman begins astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere and during the 93-day period also starts Dhofar’s autumn. When the sun sits directly over the Tropic of Cancer, daylight peaks across the Northern Hemisphere,” he said.
