Scientists anticipate that Earth's rotation will quicken enough to create three shorter days between July and August, starting Wednesday, July 9.

According to Time and Date, a website that tracks time and time zones, the current record holder for the shortest day on record was July 5, 2024, which was 1.66 milliseconds shorter than 24 hours. Each year since 2020 has seen a new shortest day on record.

Thanks to atomic clocks (and all the worldly forces that influence them), scientists know that Earth's rotation has begun to slow down, thanks in large part to the loss of ice coverage in polar regions.