Spring is arriving a day earlier this year; vernal (spring) equinox in Saskatoon falls on Thursday, March 20 at 10:57 a.m. CST. March equinox, the date when day and night are same length, marks the beginning of spring in Northern Hemisphere. The term equinox is a derivative of the Latin word equinoxium, which literally means “equality between day and night”. For our friends down under, today is the first day of autumn (fall).
The exact day is not the same from year to year. This has to do with the number of calendar days in a year, not the equinox itself. It takes the Earth 365.256 days to complete one full revolution around the Sun. However, the Georgian calendar we use rounds the year down to 365 days and does not account for the extra 0.256 days that is left over. So the spring equinox may fall on March 20 or March 21, depending on the year when our calendar catches up with the solar calendar.
With the rapid snow melt we have experienced this week, warmer temperatures green grass should be just around the corner. I talked to my mom in Croatia over the weekend; they already have had daily temperatures of over 20 C. Do you know why the spring brings warmer temperatures? Because the Earth’s axis of rotation (the end pointing to the North) is tilted towards the Sun which means longer daylight hours and more sunlight that warms up the environment.
Spring equinox signals the time when plants emerge, animals become more active, and flowers begin to bloom. It is the beginning of nature’s renewal, start of a new growing season. Here is an image gallery with Signs of Spring:
