Seattle solstice kicks off summer with warm high note, peak daylight

Summer begins in a variety of ways: The last day of school; Memorial Day; or, in Seattle, hopefully by July 4, to name a few milestones.

But since seasons are defined by the tilt of the earth and its orientation to the sun, the only real true definition of when summer begins is astronomical.

By that measure, summer began Sunday with the solstice, the longest day of the year north of the equator. With it came peak sunshine and highs in the upper 70s, a downright cold front compared to last week's record-breaking temperatures in the 90s.

Now as the sun begins its long retreat to December, it's time to come to terms with a fact that shakes many Puget Sound residents to their core: The days get shorter and shorter from here on out. The Big Dark is nigh.

That's right, the 15 hours, 59 minutes of sunshine that bathed the region on Sunday will begin to tick down, minute by minute, until that dark day at the end of the year, when the sun will rise just before 8 a.m. and set not long after 4 p.m.

That's a ways off, and before then there are days and days of heat and light.

This week, for example, the National Weather Service is warning of a moderate heat risk for most of the Puget Sound area, forecasting temps in the upper 80s, peaking Tuesday. A cooler weather pattern will arrive on the Olympic Peninsula on Wednesday, which will slowly come east before settling in the Seattle area late Thursday through Saturday, bringing days in the 60s and a chance for rain.

As for those shortening days, most people probably won't notice. For the next few days, we'll lose only a few seconds. And by those dog days of August, when the strategically placed fans and portable air conditioner just aren't cutting it, we might be wishing for less sunshine.

But probably not.

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