First official day of fall marks big changes

Fall is officially almost here, perfectly timed out as cooler weather becomes more prominent in the forecast. We talk about meteorological fall and official fall. Here is the difference. Meteorological fall started on September 1^st and is based off of climate trends. Official fall marks the autumnal equinox. The equinox is on Saturday, and at 9:56 pm, the sun's strongest rays will shine south of the equator for the first time since the spring equinox.

This means that the sun will be lower and lower in our sky through December 21^st, and because of that, our days are becoming drastically shorter.

Currently we are losing about two minutes and forty-five seconds per day. This rate will slow down as we head closer to December 21^st, which is the winter solstice. Still, we lose over one hour just within the next month, and three hours of daylight by December 21st. With the days getting shorter, this means there is less daylight to heat us up, and therefore cooler temperatures, which is exactly what we have in the forecast.