March 20th marks the first day of the spring season in the northern hemisphere, A time where we begin to truly say goodbye to the cold winter months and hello to warmer days.
The first day of spring surrounds the spring equinox, when the Earths axis results in a roughly equal day and night cycle. Ancient civilizations marked these shifts with monuments like Stonehenge, where the rocks line up with both Equinox!
Originally Julius Caesar set the equinox for March 25th but due to the shift in the Julian Calendar Pop Gregory XIII reformed it to take place on March 20-21st. With the occasional March 19th date due to the earths rotation around the sun. Because of this, Meteorologists set the equinox for March 1st for consistencies sake.
After tomorrow you will notice the days start to get longer and the nights getting shorter. But depending on how north you are, the sun might not even set! It is common for communities north of the 52nd Parallel to not get a full sunset during the longest days of the year, with the sun’s light still visible off in the horizon. The further north you go the longer the sun stays up during these days, with communities north of the 66th parallel in the arctic circle being exposed to the sun 24 hours a day for multiple months of the year!
As spring begins to settle in, what are you looking forward to?
