August 2024: During the month, daylight and twilight decrease while darkness, the duration, between twilight periods, increases. Summer’s midpoint occurs on August 6th.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Summer’s Midpoint
As the month with summer’s midpoint, daylight wanes 74 minutes as the sun rises and sets farther south. The season’s mid-point occurs on the 6th at 11:48 a.m. Central Time.
On the Celtic calendar, February 2 (Candlemas), May 1, (May Day), August 1 (Lammas), and November 1 (All Hallows), known as the cross-quarter days, approximately mark the mid-season points. In today’s culture, Ground Hog’s Day and Halloween are more noteworthy than the traditional Celtic holidays. Cinco de Mayo, a celebration that continues to grow each year, is closer to spring’s midpoint than May Day.
Daylight, Darkness, Twilight
In Chicago, the sun sets before 8 p.m. Central Time on the 9th and rises after 6 a.m. on the 16th.
Normally, the 24-hour day is described as daytime – when the sun is in the sky – and nighttime – when it is below the horizon. Nighttime can be further divided into twilight – when the sun is below the horizon but illuminates the air – and darkness, when the sky is darkest. Evening twilight ends and the morning phase begins when the sun is 18° below the horizon
At Chicago’s latitude, daylight decreases 74 minutes to 13 hours, 9 minutes at month’s end, while twilight contracts 30 minutes. Meanwhile darkness increases 104 minutes, the sum of the loss of daylight and twilight.
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