Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Shucks! I Missed the Equinox

It was an hour and a half ago. In case you don't know, "equinox" means equal night; it alludes to the fact that during the autumnal and vernal (spring) equinoxes, the nights are equal in length to the days. The "opposite" variations are called solstices, and occur during December and June. "Solstice" comes from roots Sol, meaning sun, and sistere, latin for standing still. It means the sun has stopped moving south and will now start moving north from day to day as it rises and sets along the horizon (winter) or has reached it's northernmost position on the horizon and will now start rising and setting further to the south (summer). At least in the northern hemisphere.

As far as I'm concerned though, it's still summer; it's 91 degrees outside, and supposed to be another hot one tomorrow. Yesterday morning it was 39; yesterday afternoon it was 90. A 51 degree diurnal temperature range is sort of weird.

1 comment:

Silver Fox said...

Yeah, I missed it too. So caught up in miscellaneous stuff, and not online much, so the day completely slipped by me.