Ad
Featured
Spring is here, but you won't know it by just the temps
Flowering trees show their stuff Tuesday at Journal Center in Albuquerque.
Published
Modified
Spring has sprung. No matter what the outdoor thermometer says, the calendar is certain. It’s the coming of Vertumnus and his signs: A few early buds have turned up on trees around town, pollen is in the air, and major league baseball is beginning its season.
The vernal equinox arrived on Tuesday, marking the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s us. The Southern Hemisphere is quite a distance south — think Brazil.
For most of the year, the tilt of the Earth’s axis means sunlight falls unequally on the northern and southern halves of the planet. But during the equinox, both hemispheres get an equal amount of sunlight. This year, the alignment was set for March 19 at 11:06 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 9:06 p.m. local time.
So, winter’s gone, right? Well, some New Mexicans say it’s not gone until temperatures get out of the 30s overnight. Albuquerque’s forecast calls for a couple nights this week to be in the low to mid-40s, but then it’s back to the high 30s.
If anything, visible signs of spring allow us to see that the days of cold nights are numbered. And so much more awaits us as we crawl out of a winter now that seems to be hanging on a bit longer than invited. Time to show the old guest the door.
