The fall season is right around the corner! After a very hot and humid summer, many are looking forward to that change in season. Fall arrives on Sept. 22 with the Autumnal Equinox. On the equinox, the sun will rise due east and set due west.

The word equinox comes from the Latin for “equal night.” Both of Earth’s hemispheres are equally illuminated because the sun shines directly over the equator. Unlike on the summer solstice, the sun was directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees north. This is the midpoint between summer and winter.

The Earth’s axial tilt is responsible for our seasons. The change in daylight over the different latitudes throughout the year gives us varying amounts of solar radiation, which in turn affects our weather.

The sun is getting lower and lower in the sky, and we will lose daylight even faster now. You probably have already noticed those much earlier sunsets. Compared to the summer solstice, when we had over 15 hours of daylight, we are now down to just 12 - and it’s rapidly decreasing. That’s a normal occurrence around the equinox. We saw it happen in the spring when the hours of daylight were rapidly increasing.

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the amount of daylight will continue to decrease even more through the Winter Solstice. Less daylight eventually means colder temperatures and changes in precipitation type.