SPOKANE, Wash. — Fall – and more specifically the Autumnal Equinox – begin on Saturday.
While the change in seasons is gradual, the official start of Fall is very technical. It is the time when the sun shines directly over the equator, and most areas of the world see 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.
We have seasons thanks to the tilt on the Earth’s axis and those correlate to the amount of daylight we see. As the Earth continues to rotate, the Northern Hemisphere begins to see the annual decline in the amount of daylight. While this happens, everywhere south of the equator sees an increase in daylight, marking the start of their Spring.
The sun will be directly in line with the equator on Saturday at 6:54 PM. Leading up to this, we have been losing about three minutes of sunlight per day. By the time we reach winter, we will be barely capping off with 8.5 hours of daylight.
But don’t fret quite yet. The temperature and daylight decline come gradually, which gives us plenty of time to enjoy the changing leaves and all of those pumpkin spice lattes.