On the 4th of July, you will be farther from the sun than at any other time
of the year. Earth's orbit around the sun is not a perfect circle, it's an
ellipse, and on July 4th, Earth is at the end of the ellipse farthest from
the sun. Astronomers call this "aphelion." When we are at aphelion, the
sun
appears slightly smaller in the sky (by about 1.7%) and global solar
heating
is actually a little less (by about 3.5%) than the yearly average. This
provides scant relief from northern summer heat, however. Today's edition
of http://spaceweather.com
explains why.
