Lahaina Noon

 Lahaina Noon

Today, in Hawaii where I live, the noon sun will be directly overhead.  This phenomenon, which occurs only in the tropics, is known in Hawaii as Lahaina Noon.  It is not named after the city of Lahaina in Maui.  Rather, "la haina" means "merciless sun" in Hawaiian.

Lahaina Noon happens twice a year in Hawaii, once in May as the sun moves north in the sky, and once in July as the sun moves south again.  The exact date when it happens depends on the latitude where you live, and the exact time is not 12:00, which is the standard noontime across the whole time zone, but at "astronomical noon" or solar noon, when the sun reaches the exact highest point in the sky.  The time when that happens depends on the longitude where you live.  For me, Lahaina Noon will occur on May 18 at 12:16 pm.

At Lahaina Noon, any object that is perfectly vertical, like a telephone pole, casts no shadow at all.

The drawing above, by Hawaiian artist Douglas Simonson, is called Straight Up Noon. I'm not positive that the name refers to Lahaina Noon, but I think it does, because the shadow of his arm looks vertical, as if the sun is directly above.  And of course, things in the drawing are "up" in more than one way.