The end of February is just a couple of days away, at just 28 days the shortest month of the year always goes quickly.
Sometimes there is an extra day tagged on, however, which can cause some confusion.
This happens every four years and is known as a leap year, but when is the next leap year and why do they occur?
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Why is a leap year added?
A leap year is added because the length of an astronomical year, which is the time it takes for the Earth to complete a full orbit around the Sun, is just a bit longer than a calendar year.
The normal calendar year is 365 days, but an astronomical year is 365.25 days in length. This means that every four years an extra day has to be added to account for this extra bit of time.
The extra day is tacked on in February, which is already the shortest day in the year. Meaning that every four years, the month has 29 days rather than 28. If it wasn’t then over time the seasons would stop happening during the same months every year and eventually summer would fall in December.
When do leap years occur?
A leap year will occur every four years on years where the number is divisible by four, so 2020 was the last leap year.
However, some years aren’t leap years due to the fact that 365.25 isn’t quite exact either the astronomical year is precisely 365.2422, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.
To compensate for this discrepancy, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, in 1582 the newly implemented Gregorian calendar reformed the calender system “by eliminating leap years in century years that weren’t exactly divisible by 400.
“This is why the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years but 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not and why 2400 will be a leap year but 2100, 2200, and 2300 will not.”
When is the next leap year?
The next leap year will be in 2024, this means that the next time February will have 29 days will be in 2024. After 2024, the next leap years are 2028, 2032 and 2036.
As well as leap years, every so often leap seconds will be added on. The first was added in 1998 and a second in 2005 with more in 2008, 2012 and most recently in 2015.
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