Wednesday

Julian Date for March 20, 2024

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 is day 80 of 366 — the 80th day of 2024. Written as a Julian date it is 2024080.

Julian date (YYYYDDD)

2024080

5-digit (YYDDD)
24080
Day of year
80
Zero-padded (DDD)
080
Julian Day Number
2460390
Julian Date at 00:00 UTC
2460389.5
Modified Julian Date
60389.0

How 2024080 is built

A Julian date in the day-of-year sense is just the year followed by the day number, counted from 1 January. March 20, 2024 is the 80th day of 2024, so the code is 2024 + 080 = 2024080. Many systems drop the century and print 24080 instead.

2024 is a leap year with 366 days, so day numbers run from 001 to 366. After March 20, 2024 there are 286 days left in the year.

Careful: 24080 does not name a century

The 5-digit form 24080 only carries two digits of year, so on its own it is ambiguous. Day 80 of a year ending in 24 could equally be:

  • March 20, 2024 — the usual reading for a recent product code
  • March 20, 1924
  • March 20, 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 80 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 2021080 March 21, 2021
2022 2022080 March 21, 2022
2023 2023080 March 21, 2023
2024 2024080 March 20, 2024
2025 2025080 March 21, 2025
2026 2026080 March 21, 2026
2027 2027080 March 21, 2027

Astronomical Julian Date for March 20, 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 March 20, 2024 is 2460390 — that number covers the 24 hours from noon UTC on March 20, 2024 to noon UTC the next day.

  • JD at 00:00 UTC — 2460389.5
  • JD at 12:00 UTC — 2460390.0
  • Modified Julian Date (MJD) at 00:00 UTC — 60389.0

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

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