140 Fun Facts About Summer

By the meteorological convention, which three months make up summer in the Northern Hemisphere?

Meteorologists use whole calendar months so records line up neatly, which is why their summer starts on 1 June rather than at the solstice.

In Australia and New Zealand, on what date does summer officially begin?

Australians spend Christmas Day at the beach for the same reason: their summer runs 1 December to the end of February.

On which two June dates does the Northern Hemisphere summer solstice usually fall?

Because the calendar year and the tropical year do not match exactly, the moment of solstice drifts between the 20th and 21st (and very rarely the 22nd).

In the Julian calendar of the Roman Empire, on what date did the summer solstice fall?

That is why so many European Midsummer festivals cluster on 23-24 June rather than on the astronomical solstice.

The 'dog days' of summer are named after the heliacal rising of which star?

The Romans blamed the Dog Star for the heat, lethargy and disease of late summer, and the phrase is a direct translation of their dies caniculares.

The Latin dies caniculares, source of 'dog days', literally means 'the ___ days'. What fills the blank?

Canicula is the diminutive of canis, so the Romans were really talking about 'little dog' days after the star Canicula.

Earth is actually farthest from the Sun (aphelion) during which Northern Hemisphere season?

Aphelion falls in early July, about two weeks after the June solstice; seasons come from axial tilt, not distance.

North of which line of latitude can the midnight sun be seen in summer?

In Svalbard, Norway, the Sun does not set at all from roughly 19 April to 23 August.

The Perseid meteor shower, which peaks every August, is debris from which comet?

Some Catholics call the Perseids the 'tears of Saint Lawrence' because the peak falls near the feast of the saint's martyrdom on 10 August.

What is the statistical peak date of the Atlantic hurricane season?

The season officially runs 1 June to 30 November, but the ocean is warmest, and storms most frequent, in early September.

The highest air temperature ever recorded, 134 °F, was measured in 1913 at Furnace Creek in which place?

The same valley holds North America's lowest point, Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level.

Which researcher developed the heat index in 1979?

Steadman's tables assume you are in the shade; in direct sun the perceived temperature can be up to 15 °F higher.

Which year is the 'Year Without a Summer', when snow fell in New England in June after a volcanic eruption?

The wet, gloomy summer kept Mary Shelley indoors at Lake Geneva, where she began writing Frankenstein.

The eruption of which volcano in April 1815 caused the 'Year Without a Summer' that followed?

Tambora, on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, was the most powerful eruption in recorded human history.

Which country, with Austria-Hungary, first adopted daylight saving time nationally in 1916?

The idea had been floated decades earlier by New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, who wanted more evening light to collect insects.

In the Finnish Midsummer celebration Juhannus, what is traditionally burned at lakesides and by the sea?

The holiday was renamed after John the Baptist (Johannes Kastaja) once the pagan festival was Christianised.

According to a 2023 survey, which festival is the most celebrated in Latvia, outranking even Christmas?

Jāņi runs through the night of 23-24 June with special cheese, beer and pīrāgi pastries.

Which date did John Adams predict would be 'the most memorable epoch in the history of America'?

Congress voted for independence on 2 July 1776 but adopted the Declaration's text on the 4th, and the 4th is the date that stuck.

Which two signers of the Declaration, both later presidents, died on the same day, 4 July 1826?

It was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration; James Monroe would also die on a 4 July, five years later.

The Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest is held in which New York neighbourhood?

Joey Chestnut set the record of 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes there in 2021.

Bastille Day, France's national day on 14 July, commemorates the storming of the Bastille in which year?

The Paris parade down the Champs-Élysées is described as the oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe.

Obon, the Japanese summer festival honouring ancestors' spirits, is most commonly held around which August date?

Small lanterns are floated down rivers to light the spirits' way back to the world of the dead.

La Tomatina, the world's biggest food fight, is held each August in Buñol, in which country?

It began by accident in 1945 when young people at a parade started pelting each other with tomatoes from a market stall.

Which author's writing helped make Pamplona's running of the bulls famous worldwide?

He described it in The Sun Also Rises and Death in the Afternoon; each morning run averages about two and a half minutes over 875 metres.

At which Bay Area location did Burning Man begin in 1986?

Since 1990 it has been held in Black Rock City, a temporary city built in the Nevada desert about 100 miles north of Reno.

The very first Labor Day celebration, in 1882, was held in which US city?

It became a federal holiday in 1894 and now marks the unofficial end of the American summer.

In which city's 1904 World's Fair did the ice cream cone go mainstream, per legend, when a vendor ran out of paper cups?

Syrian concessionaire Ernest Hamwi rolled a waffle cookie into a cup, though New Yorker Italo Marchiony had patented a cone mould a year earlier.

In which city did 11-year-old Frank Epperson accidentally invent the Popsicle in 1905?

He first called it the 'Epsicle' and reportedly changed the name to Popsicle at his children's insistence.

Roughly what percentage of a watermelon is water?

Botanically the fruit is a pepo, a kind of modified berry, and China grows about 64% of the world's crop.

The modern watermelon was first cultivated in which country?

Watermelon seeds and paintings have been found in Egyptian tombs more than 4,000 years old.

In 1676, the Compagnie de Limonadiers sold lemonade from tanks on their backs in which city?

One of the earliest lemon-drink recipes appears in a 12th-century Egyptian treatise, On Lemon, Its Drinking and Use.

In the United States, 10 August is designated as the national day of which campfire treat?

The name is a contraction of 'some more', and the earliest known recipe appeared in a Girl Scouts cookbook in 1927.

Which company bought the rights to the flying disc in 1957 and later branded it the Frisbee?

The name came from the Frisbie Pie Company, whose empty pie tins Yale students had been tossing around campus.

Which upholsterer invented the Slip 'N Slide after watching his son slide on wet painted concrete?

His prototype was made of Naugahyde upholstery vinyl before the manufacturer switched to cheaper plastic.

In which New York borough did Willis Carrier install the first modern air conditioning in 1902?

The phrase 'air conditioning' was actually coined in 1906 by textile engineer Stuart Cramer, and Carrier adopted it for his company.

Sunscreen's SPF rating measures the fraction of which sunburn-producing rays that reach the skin?

Conventional SPF mostly reflects UVB protection; a bottle blocks far less UVA relative to its stated number.

For sea turtles, what decides whether a hatchling is male or female?

Warmer sand produces females and cooler sand males, which is why warming beaches worry conservationists.

On which predictable cycles do North America's periodical Magicicada cicadas emerge?

Both are prime numbers, which biologists think helps the broods avoid syncing up with predators' population cycles.

Dolbear's law, from the 1897 article 'The Cricket as a Thermometer', links air temperature to what?

Later researchers assumed Dolbear was listening to the snowy tree cricket, though he never named the species.

Which 1975 Spielberg film set on Amity Island is regarded as the prototypical summer blockbuster?

The malfunctioning mechanical sharks were nicknamed Bruce, after Spielberg's lawyer.

In Grease, Danny and Sandy fall in love at the beach during the summer of which year?

They recount the romance in 'Summer Nights', with the T-Birds and Pink Ladies demanding very different details.

The 1996 alien-invasion film Independence Day was the highest-grossing film of that year. Who directed it?

It opened worldwide on 3 July 1996, timed so the White House explosion landed on the holiday weekend.

George Gershwin's 'Summertime', one of the most recorded songs ever, was written for which 1935 opera?

DuBose Heyward wrote the lyrics; The Jazz Discography counted 1,161 official releases by 2005.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's 'Summertime' samples 'Summer Madness' by which band?

It won the 1992 Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and reached number four on the Hot 100.

'Cruel Summer' hit No. 1 in 2023, four years after appearing on which Taylor Swift album?

It spent 54 weeks on the Hot 100, her longest-charting single, after going viral during the Eras Tour.

The 1967 Summer of Love drew up to 100,000 young people to Haight-Ashbury in which city?

The Monterey Pop Festival that June, with crowds building to 60,000, is often called its opening act.

The Woodstock festival of August 1969 was held on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in which New York town?

Jimi Hendrix closed the festival at 8:30 on the Monday morning, playing to a fraction of the 460,000 who had come.

The Beach Boys formed in 1961 in which California city?

Despite the surf image, only drummer Dennis Wilson actually surfed.

Which is the only tennis major still played on grass, traditionally in late June and early July?

Held since 1877, it also enforces an almost-all-white dress code and sells strawberries and cream by the ton.

In the Tour de France, held mostly in July, what colour jersey does the overall race leader wear?

The modern race is 21 stages over 23 or 24 days and covers roughly 3,500 kilometres.

The first modern Summer Olympics, held in Athens in 1896, attracted roughly how many competitors?

More than 200 of them were Greek, and only 14 countries were represented.

Which city was awarded the 2032 Summer Olympics by the IOC in 2021?

The IOC confirmed the host in July 2021. Los Angeles gets 2028 first; Rio 2016 was technically held in the host's winter, as was Sydney 2000 in spring.

The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics were held in 2021, marking the first time the Games had ever been what?

Earlier Games in 1916, 1940 and 1944 were cancelled outright because of the world wars, never rescheduled.

How do historians describe the claim that US summer vacation exists so children could help with planting and harvesting?

Farm children were actually needed most in spring and autumn; long summer breaks grew out of urban schools and heat.

Roughly how many people die each year from mosquito-borne illnesses?

Only females drink blood; males feed on sugary fluids and have less specialised mouthparts.

What actually causes summer to be warmer than winter?

The tilt is about 23.4 degrees. Distance has nothing to do with it: Earth is actually farthest from the Sun in early July, two weeks after the June solstice.

The hottest weeks of summer arrive well after the solstice. What is this delay called?

Oceans and land take weeks to soak up the extra sunshine and release it, so the peak can come up to seven weeks after the longest day.

According to many almanacs, the dog days run from 3 July to which date?

The Romans blamed the Dog Star for the heat and lethargy of the season, and a 1564 English medical text warned against purging during the 'Dogge daies'.

Which First Lady served ice cream at her husband's 1813 inaugural ball, making it fashionable?

Washington, Jefferson and Franklin were already fans. Americans now eat about 23 litres a head every year, more than anyone else on Earth.

Which country produces almost two-thirds of the world's watermelons?

The fruit was domesticated in northeast Africa; wild seeds 5,500 years old have been found in Libya. Seedless varieties now make up about 85 percent of US sales.

The Weber kettle barbecue was created in 1951 by a Chicago metalworker who cut what in half?

George Stephen worked at a shop that made buoys, and his 'George's Barbecue Kettle' sold so well he eventually bought the company.

The word 'barbecue' comes from a Caribbean Taíno word meaning what?

It reached English through Spanish 'barbacoa'. The tidy story that it comes from the French 'barbe à queue' (beard to tail) is a folk etymology.

France's national day marks the storming of the Bastille and which event held exactly one year later, in 1790?

The 1790 festival celebrated national unity a year after the prison fell. Today the Champs-Élysées hosts what is billed as the oldest and largest military parade in Europe.

In which country is Midsummer so important that people have proposed making it the national day?

The celebration involves raising a flower-covered pole, dancing around it and eating pickled herring and new potatoes. Rain is traditional too.

What did the crew nickname the mechanical shark in the 1975 film called the first summer blockbuster?

The name honoured Steven Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer. The prop broke down so often that the director hid the shark for most of the film, which is why it works.

The 1975 shark thriller that invented the summer blockbuster was filmed mainly on which island?

The fictional Amity Island's beaches, ferry and town hall are all real Vineyard locations, and the island still runs Jaws tours every summer.

'Summer Nights', the duet from Grease, was a UK number one for Travolta and which co-star?

The film opened in June 1978 and became the highest-grossing musical ever at the time with $341 million worldwide.

The Beach Boys sang endlessly about surfing. Which member was the only real surfer in the group?

The drummer suggested the band write about the sport and its Southern California lifestyle. Their debut single 'Surfin'' reached number 75 in 1961.

The modern bikini, unveiled in France in July 1946, was named after what?

The US had tested an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll four days earlier.

The sunscreen brand Piz Buin is named after what?

Chemist Franz Greiter developed his 'Gletscher Crème' after a bad burn on an Alpine climb, and later introduced the SPF rating system in 1974.

Which type of ultraviolet light does most of the work in giving you a sunburn?

UVA is up to 2,000 times less effective at burning, though it still ages skin. The Sun's rays are strongest between about 10 am and 4 pm, and clouds only partly block them.

Which mosquitoes bite people?

They need the blood meal to develop eggs, and they find you by smelling the carbon dioxide you breathe out.

The word 'mosquito' comes from Spanish and means what?

It is 'mosca' plus the diminutive '-ito'. There are around 3,600 species, and roughly 700 million people catch a mosquito-borne illness every year.

Much of the white sand on tropical beaches was produced by which animal?

They chew coral and excrete the ground-up rock. A single humphead parrotfish can put out about 90 kilograms of sand a year.

Frederick Gunn founded the first organised American summer camp in 1861 in which state?

The Gunnery Camp took schoolboys hiking and camping for two weeks. Today more than 20,000 camps operate across the United States.

In which country do pupils get a summer break of about three months?

German and Japanese pupils get about six weeks. The long US break actually grew out of wealthy families fleeing hot cities and reformers who thought too much summer study was unhealthy.

The oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration in the US, held since 1785, takes place in which state?

The town is Bristol, whose main street has a red, white and blue centre line painted on it year-round.

Which rockabilly star originally recorded 'Summertime Blues' (1958), later covered by The Who and Blue Cheer?

Cochran sang both the lead and the deep 'boss' voice himself; Brian Setzer later played him in La Bamba and cut his own version.

Which British band's 1970 debut single 'In the Summertime' spent seven weeks at number one in the UK?

Ray Dorset wrote it in about ten minutes while working at a Timex lab, and the engine noise in the middle is a Triumph sports car driven past a microphone.

Which Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist composed the music for Don Henley's 'The Boys of Summer'?

Petty passed on the demo because it didn't fit Southern Accents, so producer Jimmy Iovine suggested playing it for Henley, who wrote the lyrics.

Bananarama's 'Cruel Summer' became a US top-ten hit after appearing in which 1984 film?

The band said it was written about the misery of missing their annual holiday because of promotional duties.

Which band released 'Hot Fun in the Summertime' just before their star-making set at Woodstock in 1969?

It stalled at number 2 behind the Temptations' 'I Can't Get Next to You' and is unusual for the group in featuring strings.

'Summer Breeze', a 1972 soft-rock hit later covered by the Isley Brothers, was recorded by which duo?

It has soundtracked everything from Dazed and Confused to Freaks and Geeks and a 2004 Gap commercial.

'Surfin' U.S.A.' borrows its melody so closely from which Chuck Berry song that Berry shares the writing credit?

Billboard ranked it the number one song of 1963; Brian Wilson got the surf-spot list from his girlfriend's brother.

Bryan Adams' 'Summer of '69' was released as a single in 1985 from which album?

Adams was only nine in 1969; he and co-writer Jim Vallance drew on the era's culture and their own early garage-band days.

Which band, later Eurovision winners, had their first US top-40 hit with 'Walking on Sunshine' in 1985?

Writer Kimberley Rew admits it was 'just a piece of simple fun'; the rest of the band initially disliked it.

Which Katy Perry track was the first winner of Billboard's Songs of the Summer chart in 2010?

Snoop Dogg guested on the track; the chart was later back-filled to 1985 and added streaming data in 2012.

LFO's 1999 hit 'Summer Girls' was never meant for release. How did it reach the public?

Rich Cronin said the track was full of inside jokes recorded strictly for a demo tape; it went to number three and platinum anyway.

Who wrote 'Summer Nights', Danny and Sandy's duet, for the original stage musical Grease?

It was released as the fourth single from the 1978 soundtrack and became a worldwide summer hit that year.

Stonehenge is aligned toward what on the summer solstice?

Its opposite alignment marks the winter solstice sunset.

What is Earth's maximum axial tilt toward the Sun on the summer solstice?

The Sun's declination from the celestial equator is the same value.

Which sprite fetches the 'love-in-idleness' flower in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Robin Goodfellow's juice makes Titania fall for Bottom, who has an ass's head.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons concertos were published in 1725 in which city?

Each concerto came with a sonnet describing its season; 'Summer' is in G minor.

Whose 2013 remix of Lana Del Rey's 'Summertime Sadness' won a Grammy?

The remix took the song to number 6 on the Hot 100.

How many weeks did Alice Cooper's 'School's Out' spend at number one in the UK in 1972?

It peaked at number seven in the US.

Which sound effects were added to the Lovin' Spoonful's 'Summer in the City'?

It was the band's only US number one, in August 1966.

What was Dirty Dancing's relatively low production budget?

The average film then cost $12 million; the summer-of-1963 romance became a franchise.

Which song from Dirty Dancing won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes performed it.

In The Sandlot, whose autograph is on the ball Smalls loses to 'the Beast'?

The film is set during the summer of 1962.

Which actor made his film debut in Wet Hot American Summer (2001)?

The Camp Firewood spoof is set on the last day of camp in 1981.

What is the name of the oversized car the Griswolds drive in National Lampoon's Vacation?

John Hughes based the film on his story 'Vacation '58'.

Who directed (500) Days of Summer in his feature debut?

He later directed The Amazing Spider-Man films.

Which two towns wage the 'Sundae War' over inventing the ice cream sundae?

Two Rivers claims 1881; Ithaca has an 1892 newspaper ad.

A flat tire in Hartsdale, New York, over Memorial Day 1934 led Tom Carvel to what?

He opened his first store on the site of the broken-down truck in 1936.

Which tune do ice cream vans traditionally play in the UK, Ireland and Australia?

UK code limits chimes to 80 decibels and twelve seconds.

On which boardwalk did Sam Foster start selling cheap celluloid sunglasses in 1929?

He sold them from a Woolworth under the name Foster Grant.

Surfing popularizer Duke Kahanamoku won Olympic gold in which event in 1912?

He was a five-time Olympic medalist across 1912, 1920 and 1924.

Macy's has sponsored New York's Fourth of July fireworks every year since which bicentennial year?

The only exception was 1986, when Liberty Weekend took over.

The Little League World Series is held every August in which Pennsylvania town?

Teams from Taiwan won 15 of 23 series between 1969 and 1991.

Which three stars form the Summer Triangle?

They are the brightest stars of Aquila, Cygnus and Lyra.

Fireflies are actually what kind of insect?

Their 'cold light' contains no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies.

The sunflower is the state flower of which US state?

The tallest sunflower on record reached 10.9 metres.

Peaches were first domesticated in which country?

The species name persica reflects a mistaken Roman belief that they came from Persia.

What did a ticket to the first Glastonbury festival at Worthy Farm cost in 1970?

About 1,500 people attended Michael Eavis's Pop, Blues & Folk Festival.

The 1959 folk gathering where Dylan later went electric began as a counterpart to what?

Bob Dylan famously went electric there in July 1965.

How did the Edinburgh Festival Fringe begin in 1947?

It is now the world's largest performing arts festival, held every August.

Roughly how many people attend London's Notting Hill Carnival each August?

It has run since 1966 over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

On which two summer dates is the Palio di Siena horse race run?

Jockeys ride bareback around the Piazza del Campo for ten of the city's 17 contrade.

Which July event bills itself as 'The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth'?

American trick roper Guy Weadick organized the first one in 1912.

In what year did Juneteenth become a US federal holiday?

It marks June 19, 1865, when emancipation was enforced in Texas.

The July 1 national holiday of Canadians was known by what name until 1982?

It marks the July 1, 1867 union of the Canadas, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Italy's Ferragosto holiday on 15 August descends from a festival honouring which Roman emperor?

The Church later tied it to the Assumption of Mary.

Which French culture minister launched the Fête de la Musique on the 1982 solstice?

The free-concert day is now celebrated in 120 countries.

Which country was the first to issue official next-day UV index forecasts, in 1992?

The WHO adopted the scale in 1994.

Sunburn symptoms typically peak how long after exposure?

They usually begin improving after three to five days.

Beach volleyball became an Olympic sport at which Games?

The modern two-player game originated in Santa Monica, California.

Sweet corn results from a natural mutation affecting the conversion of sugar into what?

The Iroquois grew the first recorded sweet corn for settlers in 1779.

Roughly how many people attend US summer camps each year?

The first organized camp was the Gunnery Camp of 1861 in Connecticut.

Which two artists feature on Megan Thee Stallion's 2019 hit 'Hot Girl Summer'?

The phrase went viral as a meme before the song was released.

Calvin Harris's 'Summer' (2014) came from which album?

It debuted at number one in the UK, his sixth chart-topper.

Where was baseball's first All-Star Game played, on July 6, 1933?

Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward dreamed up the 'Midsummer Classic'.

How much ice cream does the average American eat per year, the most in the world?

New Zealanders (20 litres) and Australians (18) are close behind.

Richard Hollingshead opened the world's first drive-in theater on June 6, 1933, in which US state?

His slogan promised that 'the whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.'

At their peak in 1958, roughly how many drive-in theaters were operating across the United States?

Drive-ins boomed in rural areas because they were cheaper to build and run than indoor cinemas.

The 'Great Bath' at Mohenjo-Daro, likely the first swimming pool, is in which modern country?

Dug in the 3rd millennium BC, it was lined with bricks and sealed with tar.

The world's largest swimming pool, the San Alfonso del Mar seawater pool, is in which country?

It stretches more than a kilometre in length and covers eight hectares, yet is only 3.5 metres at its deepest.

The word 'hammock' reached English via Spanish from the language of which people?

Columbus described islanders bartering 'hamacas, or nets, in which they sleep' on his first voyage.

Which company introduced the aviator sunglasses design in 1936 for US military pilots?

The style went mainstream in the 1940s after Douglas MacArthur was photographed wearing a pair in the Pacific.

A 1995 heat wave caused roughly 739 deaths in five days in which US city?

Heat is the deadliest type of weather in the US, killing about 400 people a year on average.

A record 58-foot sand castle built with 11,000 tons of sand was unveiled in 2019 in which country?

It beat a 49.55-foot castle built at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, during the 2007 Sun Fun Festival.