Outdoors Journal: Astronomical spring
By JIM GILBERT
This certainly is a transition time. Climatologists and meteorologists here in the Upper Midwest consider winter to be the months of December, January and February.
Following this scheme winter, the season of frozen beauty and survival, gives way to spring, the season of hope and renewal, on March 1.
Astronomers, on the other hand, would have us wait until March 20, the vernal equinox, for spring to begin. The Latin word "vernal" means "belonging to spring," and the Latin word "equinox" means "equal night," so our astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere begins on the vernal equinox, 6:44 a.m. today.
At that time the sun reaches the celestial equator, an imaginary line through the sky above the earth's equator. Today each place on earth receives 12 hours of sunshine and 12 hours of night. But because the earth's axis is tilted 231/2 degrees from an upright position with respect to the sun, this moment of equipoise is a fleeting one. From today until June 21, nights in the Northern Hemisphere continue to grow shorter while the days become longer.
JIM GILBERT
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JIM GILBERT
None of the boat’s occupants, two adults and two juveniles, were wearing life jackets, officials said.