How many days until summer?

Astronomical summer begins at the June solstice, around 21 June, which is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and therefore here as well. At this latitude the swing is modest — a little under fourteen hours of daylight at midsummer against a little over ten and a half at midwinter — so the solstice is a calendar marker rather than something you can feel in the length of the evening.

The heat is a different matter, and it does not follow the calendar. The hot season in the Emirates opens well before the solstice, usually in May, and peaks in July and August when daytime maxima stay above forty degrees for weeks at a time and the coastal humidity makes the nights uncomfortable. The legal expression of that is the midday break for outdoor work, which suspends labour under direct sun through the middle of the afternoon across the hottest stretch of the year.

Everything else adjusts around it. Running and cycling move to before sunrise, football pitches switch to floodlit late evenings, and the beaches are usable at seven in the morning and again after dark. Air conditioning does the rest.

The countdown runs to the solstice date and then begins counting towards the next one, so the page is live all year.