Vernal Equinox

A day with different significance to different people. For some, it has spiritual meaning — a new beginning for life. Others might say it is when the day and night are of equal length. I say it is the first day of spring. And at least in Halifax it isn’t a bad day today — or yesterday for that matter which is officially when the vernal equinox was, at about 8:30 in the morning.

Those of you who took Natural Disasters or certainly any astronomy classes probably remember the Milankovitch cycles which detail the oscillation of the orbit of the earth around the sun and the obliquity of the Earth which affect our seasons. These cycles have a considerable period — 21,000 years and greater, but the fact is that they are ever changing. I’m not sure where I was going with all of this — I guess this is what pops into my head when I start thinking about Earth’s orbit and all that.

So happy first full day of spring in the northern hemisphere.