Here It Comes: Fall '09

By AJ Colby

Say goodbye to summer. Autumn "officially" arrives Tuesday at 5:18 pm.

It always seems to arrive so quickly, doesn't it? Fall. It's back. Although cooler temperatures are nice, along with comfortable sleeping weather and lower humidities, we know what follows: Shorter daylight hours, colder temps, and dare we say it, SNOW!

Ever wonder what "equinox" means? It's latin for "equal nights" and it happens only twice per year. The equinox marks the time when the sun's most direct rays are falling at the Equator (or zero degrees latitude).

Moreover, daylight all around Planet Earth is exactly 12 hours. As the days wear on, the Northern Hemisphere continues to lose daylight and the Southern Hemisphere gains this time.

The equinoxes are precisely reversed in each hemisphere. What does that mean? The North's autumnal equinox is the South's vernal equinox and vice versa.

As our daylight and temperatures wane, places like southern South America and Australia bask in increasing daylight and warmer temperatures.

The exact day and time of the equinoxes vary each year because the Earth wobbles ever so slightly on its axis which affects the date and time of the equinoxes and seasons.