“Equinox” (equal night) is when the sun spends the same amount of time above and below the horizon with the tilt of the Earth exactly the same so it is not slanted away or towards the sun, thus making the hours of darkness and light equal.
“Solstice,” (sun stands still) is when the sun stops before reversing its direction causing sunlight to reach the southernmost and northernmost extremes of the Earth and providing them with longer nights and days.
Both an equinox and solstice happen twice each year. An equinox happens at a specific moment in time unlike the solstice which happens in days.
The solstice happens during summer and winter when the sun is the farthest away. The summer solstice is when days of sunlight are the longest, and the winter solstice is when the days of darkness are also the longest.
The solstice happens during summer and winter when the sun is the farthest away. The summer solstice is when days of sunlight are the longest, and the winter solstice is when the days of darkness are also the longest.
The equinox happens during the start of autumn and spring, the time when the sun is closest to the equator.
Having said that, there are still different ideas as to when autumn starts. It depends whether you follow the meteorological or astronomical calendar. There's three weeks difference between them both.
In meteorological terms autumn begins on September 1 and ends on November 30. The meteorological calendar uses the Gregorian calendar to split up the four seasons into three month blocks, which, according to the Met Office, makes it easier to observe forecasting and compare seasonal statistics.
Spring: March, April, May
Summer: June, July, August
Autumn: September, October, November
Winter: December, January, February
However the astronomical calendar says autumn starts on Sept 22 this year. Astronomers base the date of the seasons upon celestial events, in autumn's case the autumnal equinox, when night and day are roughly equal length.
It was mostly a miserable summer in the UK weatherwise. The decent weather left after mid July and the rest of the summer was generally cool, cloudy and wet, with the exception of the August bank holiday weekend (28 Aug). There was an autumnal feel the last 2 weeks of August, with the nights drawing in, cooler air and a few leaves turning brown. Blackberries were ready in July, which is particularly early.
By the autumn equinox, although it felt autumnal, it still looked mostly like summer, as few trees had started to turn brown. 22 Sept in London was beautifully sunny with a clear blue sky.
The exception to this is the 'conker trees'. Many of the horse chestnut trees have a disease caused by a fungus, Guignardia aesculi. It is known as Guignardia leaf blotch, as it shows as brown blotches on the leaves and as seems to be the case, the whole leaf turns brown. The horse chestnut or conker trees have been turning brown since July, due to the blotch, not autumn. The conkers started falling around the end of August.
Having said that, there are still different ideas as to when autumn starts. It depends whether you follow the meteorological or astronomical calendar. There's three weeks difference between them both.
In meteorological terms autumn begins on September 1 and ends on November 30. The meteorological calendar uses the Gregorian calendar to split up the four seasons into three month blocks, which, according to the Met Office, makes it easier to observe forecasting and compare seasonal statistics.
Spring: March, April, May
Summer: June, July, August
Autumn: September, October, November
Winter: December, January, February
However the astronomical calendar says autumn starts on Sept 22 this year. Astronomers base the date of the seasons upon celestial events, in autumn's case the autumnal equinox, when night and day are roughly equal length.
It was mostly a miserable summer in the UK weatherwise. The decent weather left after mid July and the rest of the summer was generally cool, cloudy and wet, with the exception of the August bank holiday weekend (28 Aug). There was an autumnal feel the last 2 weeks of August, with the nights drawing in, cooler air and a few leaves turning brown. Blackberries were ready in July, which is particularly early.
By the autumn equinox, although it felt autumnal, it still looked mostly like summer, as few trees had started to turn brown. 22 Sept in London was beautifully sunny with a clear blue sky.
The exception to this is the 'conker trees'. Many of the horse chestnut trees have a disease caused by a fungus, Guignardia aesculi. It is known as Guignardia leaf blotch, as it shows as brown blotches on the leaves and as seems to be the case, the whole leaf turns brown. The horse chestnut or conker trees have been turning brown since July, due to the blotch, not autumn. The conkers started falling around the end of August.
You write: "An equinox happens at a specific moment in time unlike the solstice which happens in days." What do you mean?
ReplyDeleteIn 2017 the autumnal equinox fell on Sep 22, 20:02 (GMT) and the next winter solstice will fall on Dec 21, 16:28 (GMT).
Did you mean that those times are not the same each year? True, but that holds both for equinoxes and solstices.
True............ both do occur a specific moments, but for some silly reason a lot of people count the solstice as occurring over a day, whereas in fact it is actually a specific time.
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