Usually, seasons as they are a quarter of the year, have just three moons so the blue moon while not rare is not the norm. They happen about every three years.
Another definition describes them as being the second full moon of a calendar month, which is vague as it depends on time zones and what calendar one is using.
According to our server’s clock it is now 12:30 a.m., EDT, March 20, which means the vernal equinox just happened and Spring 2016 has begun.
Equinox is Latin for “equal night.” Days and nights are approximately equal everywhere and the Sun rises and sets due east and west, explains The Old Farmers Almanac. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.
Vernal comes from the Latin vernalis which means spring.
Daylight Saving Time 2016 starts 2 a.m., March 13. This means you lose an hour of sleep tomorrow. Set your clocks ahead an hour. Spring forward, fall back.
With temperatures in the 70s this week, don’t expect any scenes like this, this Christmas.
Winter 2015 Starts Now — Today, Dec. 21, is 2015’s winter solstice which is the day with the fewest hours of sunlight during the whole year.
If this website’s clock is properly synched it is 11:48 p.m..EST. and that means winter has started.
The word solstice comes from the Latin words for “sun” and “to stand still.” As per the Old Farmer’s Almanac: In the Northern Hemisphere, as summer advances to winter, the points on the horizon where the Sun rises and sets advance southward each day; the high point in the Sun’s daily path across the sky, which occurs at local noon, also moves southward each day.
At the winter solstice, the Sun’s path has reached its southernmost position. The next day, the path will advance northward. However, a few days before and after the winter solstice, the change is so slight that the Sun’s path seems to stay the same, or stand still. The Sun is directly overhead at “high-noon” on Winter Solstice at the latitude called the Tropic of Capricorn.
The 2015 autumnal equinox is right now 4:21 a.m., Sept. 23 according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac as the sun crosses the celestial equator. Fall has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere, and the days are now shorter than the nights and will continue to be so until the spring equinox.
The celestial equator is a circle concentric with the actual equator that extends infinitely to space. As the Earth has a 23 degree tilt the the northern half tilts towards the Sun during half its orbit and away the other half. The equinoxes occur when tilt switches.
The last winter morning, March 20, 2015, in the Philadelphia region.
Forget that white stuff this morning that was predicted by Tornado Tom. It is 6:45 p.m.. EDT and that means the vernal equinox has occurred.
That means spring has sprung.
It is porch weather as some might say. Or soon to be anyway.
Regarding the science stuff, the word equinox is Latin words for “equal night.” Days and nights are approximately equal everywhere and the Sun rises and sets due east and west, explains The Old Farmers Almanac. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.
Bad Blue Moon Rising — A blue moon will rise tonight, May 21.
