Spring Equinox 2007

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The Vernal Equinox in Serre Chevalier

The Spring or Vernal Equinox affects weather, and a lot of people are talking about how it will affect the weather here in Serre Chevalier. At the moment we are experiencing blisteringly hot days and the snow is melting rapidly. But still people are saying it will snow next wednesday!

More about the Vernal Equinox

At 1916 GMT on Wednesday 20th 2007, the Vernal Equinox will officially mark the beginning of spring.
It is the time at which the sun crosses the celestial equator.

At the times when the Sun is crossing the celestial equator day and night are of nearly equal length at all latitudes and so we call these dates the equinoxes. In March, as the Sun is moving northwards along the ecliptic, this is called the vernal equinox and in September as the Sun is moving southwards we refer to it as the autumnal equinox. The equinoxes are also the points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and equator cross and the vernal equinox is used as the zero point in measuring star co-ordinates.

Why do the equinoxes not always occur on the same days each year?

The Earth takes approximately 365.25 days to go around the Sun. This is the reason we have a leap year every 4 years, to add another day to our calendar so that there is not a gradual drift of date through the seasons. For the same reason the precise time of the equinoxes are not the same each year, and generally will occur about 6 hours later each year, with a jump of a day (backwards) on leap years.