It's that time of year to start thinking apples, pumpkins and favorite soups. Fall is nearly upon us.
The autumnal equinox occurs on Tuesday, September 22 at 5:18PM and marks the beginning of fall. So what does the autumnal equinox mean for us?
Equinox means equal night in Latin. This marks one of the two periods each year where there is nearly equal light and equal night.
The earth's axis is tilted neither towards or away from the sun and is located vertically above the equator.
Nights become longer than the days in the northern hemisphere and the reverse happens in the southern hemisphere with daylight hours extending longer than the night.
By the time December arrives, the sun will be setting shortly after 5PM. The length of our nights does not start to decrease until after the Winter Solstice when the longest night of the year occurs for the northern hemisphere and the night of 24 hours of darkness at the North Pole.
You have probably noticed one other effect of the equinox...the blinding low sun angle. Twice a year, drivers on east-west routes are directly in the path of the rising and setting sun for a couple of weeks.
This is because the sun is at a right angle to the poles during the equinox. The 90 degree angle puts the setting and rising sun in the direct path of motorists traveling east roads during the morning and west roads in the afternoon.
This glare of the sun off the roadway, car hoods and windshields can be blinding to drivers and make motorcyclists hard to see. The good news is the blinding effect of the sun typically lasts only about 30 minutes allowing drivers to alter their routes or their time of travel.
