Spring has officially arrived

For some people, the spring season began on March 1st, but for others today marks the new season. Today we see the vernal equinox.

This is because there are two starts to the season. Meteorological spring began at the start of the month while astronomical spring starts today at 5:24 p.m. EDT.

There are only two times in a year that the Earth’s axis neither tilts towards nor away from the sun. These are the equinoxes: the spring equinox and the autumn equinox.

On this day there are nearly equal amounts of daylight and darkness wherever you are in the world. This is what gave the equinox its name, with the word coming from the Latin for equal (aequus) and night (nox).

As we head towards summer in the northern hemisphere, our days will be getting longer with some warmer weather, whereas in the southern hemisphere the days will be getting shorter as they head towards their winter.

The spring equinox is the time that the sun is directly overhead the equator, which this year happens this evening.

The time and date of the equinox vary each year as it takes the Earth about 365.25 days to complete a lap around the sun, which is why our calendar includes a leap day every 4 years.

So with spring now in full swing we can start looking forward to lighter evenings, warmer days, and the arrival of Easter!