A sure sign of spring is the changing of the clocks we did on March 8, the crocuses blooming in my garden and of course the Spring Vernal Equinox. The Vernal Equinox happens twice per year. It happens in the spring and fall. It is when the sun crosses the celestial equator.

In the spring the apparent movement of the Sun relative to Earth is moving northward as we head towards the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere. In the fall it is heading south as we head towards winter in the Northern Hemisphere. 

Here is a general idea of the four seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall.   Cue James Taylor…

As the Earth’s orbit is not a perfect circle we are actually closer to the Sun in winter! That sounds odd doesn’t it? We are 3,000,000 miles closer to that ball of fire, burning at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit in winter! The reason we are colder is because we are titled away from the sun. 

Same concept for summer, while farther away from the sun than winter, we are tilted towards the Sun. Over the eons of time the elliptical path of the Earth around the Sun changes, the Earth also ‘wobbles’ on its axis.  

The axis itself also changes. These changes in the Earths path as well as the wobble can cause great changes to the Earth’s climate. A study on these changes was done in depth by Serbian geophysicist and astronomer Milutin Milankovic.

This is one of the reasons the geological record shows both a much warmer and a much colder planet over the course of tens of thousands and millions of years. Imagine the day we are both closer to and tilted towards the sun. #ItsLikeASaunaInHere. Or the day we are farther away and tilted away from the sun. #IceAge

That furry varmint predicted an early spring for the Northern Hemisphere on Ground Hog’s Day. You know what, she was right. This year spring arrived on March 19 at 11:50 p.m. The earliest arrival in 124 years!