Summer
Summer is one of Earth's four seasons. It includes the months of June, July, August, and September.
What makes the seasons?
Unless you live near the equator, you experience four seasons every twelve months. These season are spring, summer, fall, and winter. The seasons occur because of Earth's movement around the sun. As Earth rotates, or spins, around the sun, it also is rotating around an imaginary line passing through the North and South poles. This line is called the axis. The axis forms an angle we call a tilt. As Earth moves around the sun, the tilt always points in the same direction.
When the northern part of Earth is leaning away from the sun, the southern half is leaning toward the sun. So the northern part of Earth is experiencing winter, and the southern part of Earth is in the middle of summer.
Sunshine and good food
June 21 is the first official day of summer. It also is known as the summer solstice. On this day each year, the North Pole is the nearest it will ever be to the sun. The sun has reached its highest point in the sky that it will be all year. This means it takes longer to make its way across the sky. So on June 21, there is more sunlight than on any other day of the year.
North America, the continent that includes the United States, is in the Northern Hemisphere. During the summer, the closer one gets to the North Pole, the more hours of sunlight there are. In the most northern parts of Alaska, for example, the sun never sets in summer, so people who live there have 24 hours of sunshine each day. It never gets dark.
Summer follows spring, the time of blooming and growth. In summer, certain foods become more easily available because the warm weather encourages growth. Farmers and gardeners plant in the very early days of summer and count on the sunshine and rain to develop healthy crops. Plenty of fruits and vegetables can be found in supermarkets and farmers' markets throughout the summer months.
Unpredictable weather
Although summer brings warmer temperatures, weather is not the same everywhere. For example, summer in the southern regions of the United States is usually hotter and dryer than summer in the northern areas. Those southern states generally get less rain. But when it comes to storms such as hurricanes, those southern regions get hit the hardest because they lie along the ocean's coast.
Weather in summer can be unpredictable. This is the time of year when tornadoes, hurricanes, and drought are more common. In dry areas, drought can cause serious problems. A drought happens when there is not any rain for long periods of time. The ground dries up and plants die. Food and water can become scarce during a drought. In 2002, 45 percent of the United States experienced drought conditions during June, July, and August. That summer was the third hottest in U.S. weather history.
Droughts can lead to wildfires. States with mountains, such as Colorado, are in danger of wildfires every summer. It is no coincidence that 2002 also was a record-breaking year for wildfires. Colorado, Arizona, and Oregon recorded their largest wildfires in history that year.