The Start To Spring

March 20, 2015 is the first official day of Spring. There are two equinoxes every year that occur only in March and September. What this means is that two days out of the calendar year, the sun will shine perpendicular to Earth’s Equator. The Equator is the dividing point between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. Weather patterns occur differently at the two hemispheres because of Earth’s tilt.
The Northern Hemisphere will experience the Vernal – Spring Equinox while the Southern Hemisphere will experience the Autumnal – Fall Equinox.

High Pressure systems in the Northern Hemisphere rotate clockwise while in the Southern Hemisphere they rotate counter clockwise. The opposition is present for Low pressure systems too. In the Northern Hemisphere, A low pressure system such as a hurricane rotates counter clockwise, whereas a low pressure system in the Southern Hemisphere, will rotate clockwise.  At the equator there are no winds present.

At 6:45 PM, the sun will be shining directly on the equator.

Today also marks a couple of other cool events that occurred. There was a “Super Moon” meaning the full new moon appears to be much bigger to the eye. Basically the moon is closest to Earth in its orbit. Since the “Super Moon” occurred during a new moon, it was not visible.

There was also a Solar Eclipse that occurred. Eclipses occur when the sun and moon line up and the moon appears to be in the suns shadow. The only places that were able to witness this event during the early morning hours was Northern Europe.