Even though we have two feet of snow on the ground, and added another four inches yesterday, it still feels like spring in the Northwoods. The sun is bright and the rooftops are dripping.
Spring arrives officially during the night tonight, at 12:48 am CDT, March 20th. If you are "smarter than a fifth grader" and remember your elementary school science, you will know that is the moment when the sun stands directly over the equator, and is called the vernal equinox--halfway between winter and summer.
On this day we have exactly the same amount as daylight as of darkness. Gail Speer's weather website tells us sunrise is near 7:00 am and sunset near 7:00 pm.
In another bit of trivia, the equinox explains why Easter Sunday falls so early this year: always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This year, equinox is Thursday, March 20th, the moon is full on Friday, March 21st, and Easter Sunday on March 23rd comes when spring has barely arrived.
(And even more trivia---on the day spring arrives, when the sun is directly over the equator, tradition has it that an egg will balance perfectly on its end. Try it! This is one of the activities I used to do with kids at school---try to picture a roomful of 7th graders with a bunch of uncooked eggs!)
Comments