The equinoxes are the only two times a year the sun rises due east and sets due west for everyone on the planet.ĮarthSky says the equinox is “a good day for finding east and west from your yard or other favorite site for watching the sky. If you’re a sky watcher, the website EarthSky points out the equinoxes – spring or autumn – are a superb time to orient yourself. We got that truly equal day/night split a few days before the official spring equinox. This bending of light rays “causes the sun to appear above the horizon when the actual position of the sun is below the horizon.” The day is a bit longer at higher latitudes than at the equator because it takes the sun longer to rise and set the closer you get to the poles. How does that happen when it’s supposed to be 12 hours of day and 12 hours night?Īs the US National Weather Service explains, the “nearly” equal hours of day and night are because of the complex way a sunrise is measured and the refraction of sunlight in our atmosphere. It turns out you actually get a little more daylight than darkness on the equinox – and how much so depends where you are on the planet. This discrepancy in sunlight is what triggers the seasons.īirds start to roost on the West Pier in Brighton, England, during the spring equinox. That positions one hemisphere of the planet to get more sunlight than the other for half of the year’s orbit around the sun. However, the axis tilts at 23.5 degrees, as NASA explains. It’s called the axis, and this rotation is what gives us day and night.

The Earth rotates along an imaginary line that runs from North Pole to South Pole. The term equinox comes from the Latin word “equinoxium,” meaning “equality between day and night.” And vernal also comes from Latin and means “spring.” If you ever hear anyone say “vernal equinox,” it means the same thing. They get roughly 12 hours of daylight and nighttime year round. So for Chileans, South Africans and Australians, among others, this is a time to look forward to cooler autumn weather.įor people who reside near the equator (in places such as Quito, Ecuador, or Singapore), none of this is really a big deal. But for people living south of the equator, this equinox means they are heading into fall. David Silverman/Getty Imagesįolks in the Northern Hemisphere are looking forward to longer days, flowers and a burst of greenery. This equinox actually heralds the beginning of fall in Southern Hemisphere locations such as South Africa.

Helsinki (Finland) and Alexandria (Egypt): 11:24 p.m.Īn aerial view of the Tokara Wine Estate below the Drakenstein Mountains in South Africa' Western Cape.

Paris (France) and Algiers (Algeria): 10:24 p.m.

Dublin (Ireland) and Accra (Ghana): 9:24 p.m.

Montreal (Canada) and Charleston (South Carolina): 5:24 p.m.Ĭrossing over the Atlantic, here are some more places:.

Minneapolis (Minnesota) and Kingston (Jamaica): 4:24 p.m.

Santa Fe (New Mexico) and Guadalajara (Mexico): 3:24 p.m.

San Francisco (California) and Victoria (Canada): 2:24 p.m.

Here’s how that breaks down at various points around the world (all times adjusted for Daylight Saving Time): The spring equinox will arrive exactly at 21:24 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) March 20, according to EarthSky. Some folks like things scheduled down to the minute. Precisely when will the spring equinox happen? This official first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere is a sign of rebirth, a time of tradition and a harmonious balance between day and night. They’re all signs that spring equinox 2023 is arriving. Sweet spring indeed – a time to observe the growing light, listen to the birds, smell the flowers and feel the growing warmth from the sun. In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit, The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet, Thomas Nashe, the 16th-century British poet and dramatist, certainly looked forward to spring in his own colorful, singsong way:

Solstice and equinox animation