Wednesday

Julian Date for February 21, 2024

Wednesday, February 21, 2024 is day 52 of 366 — the 52nd day of 2024. Written as a Julian date it is 2024052.

Julian date (YYYYDDD)

2024052

5-digit (YYDDD)
24052
Day of year
52
Zero-padded (DDD)
052
Julian Day Number
2460362
Julian Date at 00:00 UTC
2460361.5
Modified Julian Date
60361.0

How 2024052 is built

A Julian date in the day-of-year sense is just the year followed by the day number, counted from 1 January. February 21, 2024 is the 52nd day of 2024, so the code is 2024 + 052 = 2024052. Many systems drop the century and print 24052 instead.

2024 is a leap year with 366 days, so day numbers run from 001 to 366. After February 21, 2024 there are 314 days left in the year.

Careful: 24052 does not name a century

The 5-digit form 24052 only carries two digits of year, so on its own it is ambiguous. Day 52 of a year ending in 24 could equally be:

  • February 21, 2024 — the usual reading for a recent product code
  • February 21, 1924
  • February 21, 2124

If you are reading a code off packaging, the surrounding context — a shelf life of months rather than decades — almost always settles it.

Day 52 in nearby years

The same day number lands on a different calendar date depending on whether the year is a leap year. This is the single most common mistake when decoding a code whose year you had to guess.

YearJulian dateCalendar date
2021 2021052 February 21, 2021
2022 2022052 February 21, 2022
2023 2023052 February 21, 2023
2024 2024052 February 21, 2024
2025 2025052 February 21, 2025
2026 2026052 February 21, 2026
2027 2027052 February 21, 2027

Astronomical Julian Date for February 21, 2024

In astronomy, "Julian Date" means something different: a continuous count of days since noon on 1 January 4713 BC. The Julian Day Number for February 21, 2024 is 2460362 — that number covers the 24 hours from noon UTC on February 21, 2024 to noon UTC the next day.

  • JD at 00:00 UTC — 2460361.5
  • JD at 12:00 UTC — 2460362.0
  • Modified Julian Date (MJD) at 00:00 UTC — 60361.0

See Julian Day for where the count comes from, or the astronomical converter to include a time of day.

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