Equal Day and Night

We meteorologists are always fascinated by the intricacies of weather. We can be intrigued by a certain record high temperature, a day of record rainfall, or even a day of notably severe weather. Well, today is one of those days that really don’t mean much to everybody else, but it is an important day and it doesn’t come around but one other time a year.

Today the sun comes up at 6:42am and it sets at 6:42pm. This is the day that we get 12 hours of sun and 12 hours of night. The day that we get equal time for daylight and night time usually happens right around the first few days of fall and it also happens right around the first few days of spring. Keep in mind, this is for Alliance and other cities around the area may vary by a few minutes but everybody is pretty close to the first days of spring and fall.

The Autumnal Equinox happened on September 22nd, which was a few days ago, and now we are headed towards winter. During this time, the earth slowly tilts the northern hemisphere further and further away from the sun, giving a more indirect angle at the sun. This is one of the reasons it gets cold during the winter months.