10:55am UPDATE: An e-mailer points out that the "Sky Watch" item on the Albuquerque Journal's weather page this morning puts the arrival of Spring at 10:49 p.m. tonight, but we've checked and re-checked and found that it starts at 11:48 p.m. MDT (though some say 11:49 p.m.).

We've scratched our collective heads and can only figure that the 10:49 p.m. may have been calculated without reference to our new, extended hours of Daylight Saving Time, which used to begin in April.

No need to set your clocks forward or back. If you happen to be up at 11:48 p.m. today (MDT), you can just relax and enjoy the first moment of the first day of Spring 2008 -- the Vernal Equinox, when the Sun is poised directly over the Earth's Equator and the day is (theoretically, anyway) exactly as long as the night.

With gradually increasing temperatures forecast for our area this week (above average high 60s today and into the 70s tomorrow, under sunny skies), we can taste a little of Spring's mild side.

But this being New Mexico, it's always something.

Winds are expected to kick up on Thursday, with 10-15 mph west winds increasing to 15-25 mph in the afternoon and gusts possible up to 35 mph for Albuquerque.

But those brisk winds, combined with humidities plunging into the low teens and single digits along and to the east of Interstate 25, will mean widespread critical fire conditions over the eastern half of the state.

The National Weather Service has posted a fire weather watch for the northeast highlands and plains, the east central plains and the Sandias, Manzanos and Gallinas mountains from late Thursday morning through early Thursday evening.

But the forecasters expect reduced wind speeds and less fire danger on Friday, with warm temperatures generally running above seasonal averages heading into the weekend. 

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