The GOESEast and GOESWest satellites on Friday simultaneously saw the slanted shadows separating day and night on Earth just minutes after the summer solstice occurred.

Summer solstice is the start of astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the moment that hemisphere reaches its greatest tilt toward the sun.  It occurred today at 11:54 am EDT, when the sun’s direct rays reached as far north as they could get, along the Tropic of Cancer, at 23.5 degrees North latitude.  Of course, it’s also the longest day — and shortest night — of the year.

The amount of daylight we see depends on our distance from the equator.  In Fairbanks, AK, the sun rose today at 2:57 am and will set at 12:47 am. In Miami, it rose at 6:30 am and sets at 8:15 pm.

Notice in this image how the shadow that separates day and night across Earth is highly slanted. That shadow is called the daylight terminator. As the Earth rotates on its axis, the North Pole experiences 24 hours of daylight, or “midnight sun,” while the South Pole is obscured in darkness. The opposite occurs at each pole in December, when the Northern Hemisphere sees its shortest day and longest night of the year.

NYT

“……By 2040, simply providing basic storm-surge protection in the form of sea walls for all coastal cities with more than 25,000 residents will require at least $42 billion, according to new estimates from the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental advocacy group. Expanding the list to include communities smaller than 25,000 people would increase that cost to more than $400 billion. …….”

Site of the mass grave in Brevig Mission, Alaska, where 72 of the small village’s 80 adult inhabitants were buried after succumbing to the deadly 1918 pandemic virus. Photo credit: Angie Busch Alston.

Thomson Reuters Foundation

“…..Chennai was one of 21 cities the think-tank said could run out of ground water by 2020 and this week, taps ran dry as water levels in its four major reservoirs fell to one-hundredth of what they were this time last year.

The crisis in the southern coastal city has pushed schools, hotels and commercial establishments to close, while hospitals have put off non-essential surgeries…..”

NPR

HxC

CNN

ReliefWeb

Crisis In Yemen : Document 2019

“…….The Scale of the Conflict:

• ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data) records over 91,600 total reported fatalities from the start of 2015 to the present
  • Approximately 17,100 were reported in 2015; 15,100 in 2016; 16,800 in 2017; 30,800 in 2018; and 11,900 in 2019 thus far
• More than 39,700 conflict events have been reported since the start of 2015
  • Approximately 7,700 in 2015; 8,700 in 2016; 7,900 in 2017; 10,200 in 2018; and 4,900 in 2019 thus far
• Overall, 2018 is the war’s deadliest and most violent year on record

Impact on Civilians:

• ACLED records nearly 4,500 direct civilian targeting events resulting in approximately 11,700 reported civilian fatalities since 2015
  • Approximately 4,500 reported fatalities in 2015; 2,200 in 2016; 1,900 in 2017; 2,400 in 2018; and 600 in 2019 thus far
• 2015 is the deadliest year for direct anti-civilian violence on record, with almost twice the number of reported fatalities recorded during 2018, the second-most lethal year
• The Saudi-led coalition and its allies remain responsible for the highest number of reported civilian fatalities from direct targeting, with over 8,000 since 2015…..”

Thomas Reuters Foundation