Your Friday is about to get a whole lot better, because today, Sept. 22, marks the very first official day of fall. Check it out below. The fall equinox is Monday: 9 things to know about the first day of autumn. In the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, we see the greatest loss in daylight around the autumnal equinox in September and the greatest gains in daylight around the spring equinox in March. Technically speaking, the equinox occurs when the sun is directly in line with the equator. Chip in as little as $3 to help keep it free for everyone. And while some flock to Stonehenge for the autumnal equinox too, the real place to be is Mexico. Below is a short scientific guide to the most equal night of the season. And here’s yet another cool way to visualize the seasons. Meteorological spring includes March, April, and May; meteorological summer includes June, July, and August; meteorological fall includes September, October, and November; and meteorological winter includes December, January, and February. Perhaps you were told as a child that on the equinox, it’s easier to balance an egg vertically on a flat surface than on other days of the year. It’s the exact moment when the sun appears straight over Earth’s equator (zero degrees latitude) and our entire planet receives roughly equal amounts of daylight and darkness. Well, the exact location of sunrise and sunset is one. Below, see a beautiful composite image of Saturn on its equinox captured by the Cassini spacecraft (RIP) in 2009. The practice originated in China as a tradition on the first day of spring in the Chinese lunar calendar in early February. Blessings To You This First Day Of Fall. This not-so-equal daylight happens for two reasons: One is that Earth’s atmosphere refracts, or bends, light, which causes the sun to appear higher in the sky than it is. This is easier to see in a video. In Washington, sunrise is at 6:56 a.m. and sunset at 7:03 p.m., giving us 12 hours and seven minutes of daylight. Another unifying trait about the equinoxes is that they coincide with our fastest daylight changes of the year. Check out TimeAndDate.com to see how many hours of sunlight you’ll get during the equinox. Well, depends: Are you asking a meteorologist or an astronomer? Brad Plumer wrote for Vox about what happens when the sun erupts and sends space weather our way to wreak havoc on Earth. “Pumpkin spice” is not a single spice but a blend of them. Sunrise and sunset will end about an hour earlier on Nov. 3 than the day before with more light in the morning. The goal is to study the sun’s atmosphere, weather, and magnetism and figure out the mystery of why the sun’s corona (its atmosphere) is much hotter than its surface. During Saturn’s equinox, its rings become unusually dark. This year’s equinox may not feel very autumnal, but it’s a harbinger of the dark season and cooler weather we can expect in the months ahead. You can balance an egg on its end any day of the year (if you’re good at balancing things). But others are more like the Earth (23.5 degrees) or are even more extreme (Uranus is tilted 98 degrees!). In the video, you can see how the line separating day from night (called the terminator) swings back and forth from the poles during the year. Temperature and weather conditions, though, can impact the intensity of fall colors and how long they linger. So even though we all see just over 12 hours of daylight on the equinox, this is really the only thing that faraway geographic locations have in common. For the next 172 days after that (until March 17), the sun will be visible for less than 12 hours each day. Even down in Sydney, Australia, sunrise and sunset are 12 hours and seven minutes apart. Meteorological fall is less specific, falling on September, October and November before winter in December, January and February. We sometimes hear this day referred to as the equilux, or day of “equal light.”. It’s why we have seasons. The autumnal equinox is upon us: On Monday, September 23, both the Northern and Southern hemispheres will experience an equal amount of daylight. A fun fact about the terminator: It’s not the case that it splits the Earth into even halves of light and dark. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (each updated 1/1/20). Because the sun takes some time to rise and set, it adds some extra daylight minutes. Saturn only sees an equinox about once every 15 years (because it takes Saturn 29 years to complete one orbit around the sun). Meteorologically speaking, summer is defined as the hottest three months of the year, winter is the coldest three months, and the in-between months are spring and fall. It may still be hot outside, but the first day of fall is upon us. But Is It Really Fall?. Fall will end Saturday, Dec. 21 at 11:19 a.m. EST, making way for winter and shorter days. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting a warmer-than-normal fall across the United States. Daylight Saving Time will end Nov. 3 and most people will move their clocks back one hour before going to bed on Nov. 2. Here’s a time-lapse demonstration of the phenomenon shot over the course of a whole year from space. Daylight time is slightly longer than nighttime on the equinox because of how we measure the length of a day: from the first hint of the sun peeking over the horizon in the morning to the very last glimpse of it before it falls below the horizon in the evening. (You can easily make a similar image at home. The equinox kicks off astronomical fall. And it contains no pumpkin. It’s autumn — go ahead and sprinkle it on whatever you like. The image above was taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft launched in 2010 to better understand the sun. Equinox literally means “equal night.” And during the equinox, most places on Earth will see approximately 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. This is true no matter where you are on Earth. There are many natural factors that influence the progression of the fall foliage season. Beautiful Girl Laying On Fallen Leaves Happy First Day Of Fall. The Autumnal Equinox officially arrives at 2:50 a.m. CDT. Still, even several million miles away, the probe will have to withstand temperatures of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Because the color change is more dependent on light than temperature, it takes place at basically the same time year after year, according to the US National Arboretum. All you need is a can, photo paper, some tape, and a pin. Millions rely on Vox’s explainers to understand an increasingly chaotic world. There are only two days each year, one in March and one in September, when daylight and darkness are in near-perfect harmony no matter where you are on Earth. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. We continue to lose daylight for three more months — that is, until the winter solstice on Dec. 21, when our daylight hours bottom out at nine hours and 26 minutes. Built by the Maya about 1,000 years ago, the pyramid is designed to cast a shadow on the equinox outlining the body of Kukulkan, a feathered snake god. In actuality, day and night won't be perfectly divided into two 12-hour segments, with the period of sunlight stretching slightly longer. For instance, on Monday, Fairbanks, Alaska, will see 12 hours and 11 minutes of daylight. This will happen at 3:50 a.m. Eastern on Monday. Even though the autumnal equinox is upon us, fall may take its time arriving this year. Because the sun looks like a large, lumbering disk (not a tiny point in the sky), we add a few minutes to the length of the day just by nature of the way we define the words sunrise and sunset. Around the autumnal equinox Washington loses two minutes and 30 seconds of daylight per day, while Miami loses only 90 seconds. In 2013, a resident of Alberta, Canada, took this pinhole camera photograph of the sun’s path throughout the year and shared it with the astronomy website EarthSky. Last year, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft that will come within 4 million miles of the surface of the sun (much closer than any spacecraft has been before). Bay Area Harvest Festivals 2019 380: Number of calories in a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. But even the change in daylight is not so equal. Fall 2019 (Northern Hemisphere) Today’s Doodle celebrates the first day of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere! Cute Little Puppy Sitting On Fallen Leaves Happy First Day of Fall Greeting Card Image. But it won’t be until a few days after the equinox. Every six months when we have an equinox, we focus a lot on the word “equal” — after all, the word “equinox” comes from Latin and means “equal night.” But when we delve into the science a bit more, we’ll see that Mother Nature isn’t exactly in perfect balance. 310,000,000: Dollars of retail sales for women’s scarves/mufflers from … “Sunrise is defined by the appearance of the top of the sun above the horizon, while sunset is the disappearance of the top of the sun below the horizon,” David Policansky explained on Capital Weather Gang earlier this year. If you live closer to the equator, the change in daylight is much less dramatic than it is at higher latitudes. Key West, Florida, will see 12 hours and six minutes. On the heels of the arrival of fall comes the time change. Updated Sep 23, 2019; Posted Sep 23, 2019 The Autumnal Equinox – the official start of fall – is today for the Northern Hemisphere (officially arriving at 2:50 a.m. CDT on Sept. Yes! Forecasts aside, as our average temperatures steadily drop with each passing week, it won’t be long before summer surrenders to fall. One of them is on our doorstep: The autumnal equinox arrives in the early hours of Sept. 23 (3:50 a.m. Eastern), marking our traditional passage from summer to fall here in the Northern Hemisphere and winter to spring if you live south of the equator.