The sky at 1:00am on 4 July 2017, Tuusniemi, Finland

21 June 2026

Happy Summer Solstice!

By the time you read this the moment of the northern solstice will have passed in Pittsburgh on 21 June 2026 at 4:24 am EDT.

We usually have only one longest day per year but sometimes the solstice lines up to give us two days with the same number of hours, minutes and seconds. This is one of those years with 15 hours, 3 minutes and 50 seconds of sunlight both yesterday and today. (The day lengths probably differ in fractional seconds.)

Sun chart for June 2026, Pittsburgh PA (from timeanddate.com)

At the location of the photograph at top in Tuusniemi, Finland, they will have 20 hours, 11 minutes and 30 seconds of sunlight today. Two weeks after the solstice, when the photo was taken, the sky is not dark at 1:00am.

In Finland they have blackout curtains in their bedrooms. You might want some in yours as well since the sun will come up before 6:00am every day until 12 July.

Black out curtains from IKEA, founded in Sweden where they also have the midnight sun