March 19 - Spring Begins

Happy National Spring Day! Spring begins on the March or vernal equinox, which is when the amount of sunshine is approximately twelve hours long. The amount of sunlight will incrementally increase until the first day of summer. 

  

The vernal equinox marks the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator. This is the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator, from south to north.  

  

The vernal equinox happens on March 19, 20, or 21 every year in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, this same event marks the beginning of fall. Meteorologists mark the spring from March 1 through May 31. 

  

In 2020, spring arrived a little earlier due to it being a leap year. On Leap Day, there’s a short math lesson regarding the Gregorian calendar.   

To keep our calendar following the seasons so that spring happens when flowers grow and winter arrives when snow falls, an additional day was figured into years divisible by the number four. 

This caused the 2020 spring to occur earlier than any living human being alive had ever seen. Before 2020, the earliest spring on record took place in 1896. 

For more information, visit the website below 

https://www.almanac.com 

HOW TO OBSERVE 

Get ready for longer days and increased sunshine. Tune-up the lawnmower. More sunshine means the grass will be growing. Use #SpringBegins to post on social media. 

HISTORY 

Human beings have been following the sun and creating a calendar based on seasons since the beginning of time.

#SpringBegins
@GoogleDoodles
@nichecinema

DATES 

March 20, 2021 

March 20, 2022 
March 20, 2023 
March 19, 2024 
March 20, 2025 
March 20, 2026 
March 20, 2027 
March 20, 2028 
March 20, 2029 
March 20, 2030