When you say “oh what a day it went fast” you may in some cases be more right than you think. The speed at the Earth’s equatorial plane is about 1,674.4 km / h, or 465.10 meters per second. One rotation per 86,400 seconds gives 24 hours, but sometimes the rotational speed actually increases, which shortens the day. It writes Time and Date.

Several factors are considered to contribute to the planet’s rotational speed varying, partly what is going on in the molten core but also the oceans and our atmosphere come into play. With exact atomic clocks, it has been possible to reveal how large and frequent these variations are.

It turns out that the speed was unusually high in 2020. An earlier landmark in the near future was July 5, 2005. Then the day was 1.0516 milliseconds shorter than the stipulated 86,400 seconds, which gave the shortest day since 1973. But in 2020 did not strike less than 28 speed records, among other things, the day was completed with 1.4602 milliseconds to good on 19 July.

The researchers’ forecast is that 2021 will be even faster and shorter. They predict that the average day will be 0.05 milliseconds for 86,400 seconds – and throughout the year, the accumulated time that has been lost should be 19 milliseconds.

If true, 2021 will be the shortest year in decades. The last time no day during the year reached a full 86,400 seconds was 1937.