Peninsula: Summer is officially here — well, almost.

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, June 20, 2001

According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration calculations, summer officially begins at 12:24 a.m. Thursday.

That means Thursday will be the longest day of the year with 16 hours and 4 minutes of daylight on the North Olympic Peninsula. There will only be 7 hours 56 minutes of darkness.

The sun will rise at 5:14 a.m. and set at 9:18 p.m.

The summer solstice — the first day of summer — occurs when the sun is the farthest north in the Northern Hemisphere, above the Tropic of Cancer.

Ancient religions considered the summer solstice the midpoint of summer.