In the Northern Hemisphere, the season that begins at the summer solstice is summer.
The summer solstice is the astronomical point when Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is tilted most toward the Sun. It produces the year’s longest daylight period and shortest night in that hemisphere. The solstice generally occurs on June 20 or June 21, although the exact date and time vary with the calendar and year.
The event is tied to Earth’s axial tilt, which is about 23.44 degrees. At the solstice, the Sun reaches its greatest northward declination and appears highest in the sky at local solar noon outside the tropics. Afterward, daylight gradually decreases even though temperatures often continue rising for several weeks.
“Midsummer” can cause a calendar mix-up. In many European traditions, the solstice was regarded as the middle of summer because older seasonal calendars began summer around May Day. Modern meteorological and astronomical conventions commonly treat the solstice as the beginning of summer, so the quiz’s answer is the standard one for the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, the corresponding summer solstice occurs in December.