CAIRO: Sunday is Egypt’s longest day of sunlight in 2015, where the sun will be up for around 14 hours in a “Summer Solstice” phenomenon.
The Summer Solstice will be witnessed in countries falling in the northern hemisphere. The opposite is witnessed in the southern hemisphere, notably in countries falling under the equator, where daylight is shorter.
The annual phenomenon coincides this year with the holy month of Ramadan, where Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Egyptians will fast up to 16 hours this year, which is believed to be the longest fasting period amongst Arab countries.
“The Summer Solstice’s length is 93 days, 15 hours and 43 minutes,” Ashraf Tadros, the head of Astronomy division at the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics Research, told Youm7 Saturday.
Tadros explained that daylight hours will gradually decrease until Sept. 23, which is the peak of autumn season, where day and night are equal in length.
This phenomenon does not affect nature or creatures, said Tadros, adding that the phenomenon has nothing to do with the weather and that “it is about the Earth’s axial tilt toward the sun.”
Additional reporting by Mohamed Mahsoub