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If 2025 already feels like a fever-dream – bomb cyclones, fires, floods and the occasional urge to join a monastery – here’s another plot twist: the Earth is spinning faster in 2025.
That’s right, if you feel like you don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done, we’re here to validate you. You haven’t been enjoying a full 24-hour day lately.
Yep, while we’ve just passed the winter solstice and are looking forward to long summer days, it turns out that on 8 July, earth completed a full pirouette 1.34 milliseconds faster than the usual 24 hours, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory and the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service.
And, scientists see this as an emerging pattern.
- This July earth has been spinning 1.34 milliseconds faster than usual
- More short days are arriving with July 22 and August 5 between 1.2 and 1.5 milliseconds shorter than usual
- A number of factors contribute to the earth’s increased speed including tides and climate change
So, Just How Much Faster Is Earth Spinning In 2025?
Why Is The Earth Spinning Faster In 2025?
More short days are expected in late July and early August, according to predictions from Time and Date. So why is this happening? The Earth has been spinning faster than usual, and the average day has shortened over the last decade. In the previous five years, a full rotation has come in a fraction less than the full 24 hours we’ve been promised.
What’s contributing to this change? Shifts in the liquid outer core of the Earth, changes in atmospheric pressure, ocean currents and major earthquakes can jostle the planet’s momentum.
Will The Days Keep Getting Shorter?
If you’re worried you’re about to have even less time to get everything you need to get done in a day done, you can rest easy over the last several million years that days have gotten (a little bit) longer. Studies have found that a T. rex 70 million years ago would have experienced a daily rotation of 23 ⅓ hours. That’s a whole extra half hour you have to watch Too Much on a Sunday night.
And scientists are saying that overall, our days are going to get longer. Research professor Clark R Wilson at the Centre for Space Research at the University of Texas at Austin did say to the New York Times that the process of lengthening would be so slow it’s “well beyond human timescales.” In other words, your great-grandchildren won’t be scheduling 25-hour workdays.
When Will The Shortest Days Of 2025 Be?
The shortest day of the year passed on July 9, and it will be followed by another short day on July 22 and August 5. How short? Between 1.2 and 1.5 milliseconds shorter, so don’t cancel your plans.
How Does The Moon Affect How Long Our Days Are?
The moon’s gravitational pull affects tidal changes on Earth. The currents of the tide heat the ocean very slightly, dissipating energy. This slows the rotation of the Earth, and the moon moves farther away over time (at the moment, this is four centimetres each year), gradually stretching the length of the day.
How Does Climate Change Impact The Length of the Day?
Weather and long-term climate changes do impact the speed of the Earth’s rotation, and it’s one of the reasons we can anticipate longer days. Research shows that when ice melts into the sea, spreading water away from the poles and toward the Equator, it slows the Earth’s rotation, similar to a figure skater extending her arms to slow her rotation.
When Were The Slowest Days?
Days speeding up are likely to have the most impact on millennials and boomers who grew up with some of the slowest days in recorded history. The early 1990s and the 1970s featured days that regularly surpassed 24 hours by a whole… 2 milliseconds.
The post Earth Just Had One Of The Shortest Days Ever And More Are Coming appeared first on ELLE.
