It may feel like summer for a few more weeks (or even months because after all, this is Houston). But autumn is nearly here. Tomorrow, Sept. 22, is the Fall Equinox. And while typical fall activities like brilliant fall foliage and cold weather may not happen in our great city, there’s still football, fall decorations and pumpkin-spice everything to enjoy.
The fall equinox occurs when the sun crosses the celestial equator. This happens every year around September 22-24, varying slightly because it takes the Earth around 365.25 days to orbit the Sun. This year it will take place in the Northern Hemisphere at 3:02 p.m. Here are some other interesting facts about the arrival of fall.
- Unlike events like New Year’s Eve, where it hits midnight each hour across different time zones, the autumnal equinox arrives precisely at 3:02 p.m. everywhere at exactly the same moment.
- Until December, the nights will be longer and days will continue to get shorter. Winter solstice is technically the shortest day of the year, while the summer solstice in June receives the most sunlight.
- “Equinox” comes from the Latin words “equi” meaning “equal,” and “nox,” which means “night.”
- No matter where you are on our plant during an equinox, the sun will rise precisely due east and set due west during the fall equinox.
- Despite what you may have heard, not everyone in the world sees equal amounts of daylight and nighttime during an equinox. Generally, that is true, but according to the EarthSky organization, there are eight more minutes of daylight than nighttime on the day of the equinox at mid-temperate latitudes. There are two reasons for this: atmospheric refraction — where light is bent — and also because the sun is a disk, not a point.
- Another just as prevalent myth is that the equinox has special properties that allows eggs (and also brooms) to be balanced on their ends, but just for that day. Just as some people think the equinox symbolically restores balance to the world, some believe an egg can be balanced on its end on the day equally divided between day and night as a sign of all nature being in harmony. However, with a little practice — and the right egg (perhaps with more little bumps at one end) — you can stand an egg on its end any day of the year.
- You’re more likely to see stunning aurora borealis displays after the fall equinox because autumn produces nearly twice the annual average of geomagnetic storms.
- In astrology, the morning of the autumnal equinox is when the sun enters Libra, which features the sign of balanced scales.
- The full moon near the autumnal equinox is called the Harvest Moon, since the added luminosity gave farmers the ability to work later.
- Especially in higher latitudes, some animals experience extreme biological changes when the days become shorter, from the swelling of certain body parts, to eating and sleeping habits.