The sun is at its furthest in July.
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Many parts of the northern hemisphere are seeing the hottest temperatures ever recorded despite the fact that our planet is at the point in its orbit when the physical distance between all of us and the sun is at its greatest.
It’s aphelion day 2021, the spot in our elliptical orbit of that big ball of fire in which we’re furthest away from our star. Officially, aphelion occurs at 6:27 p.m. EDT on July 5.
That’s right, our path around the sun is oval, rather than circle-shaped, meaning we are usually moving ever slightly closer or more distant from the sun.
The differences aren’t huge, however. When earth is nearest the sun, in earliest January, it’s only a little more than three percent closer than it is on July 5, according to NASA.
But surely this has to result in a little bit of extra heat making it…