Spring equinox – Travel Smart With Jodie

Spring really starts this Thursday

Four large white and red parachutes are fully deployed above a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashing into the water.

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore land in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, March 18, 2025 after an unpredictably long nine months at the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA/Keegan Barber

We’re celebrating Spring, a good time to applaud the two astronauts’ return to Earth and the change of seasons.

It’s OK to be confused. Those of us recently told to “Spring forward” might have thought our weather was about to change along with our moving one-hour-ahead time.

For many of us in the Midwest it did. We didn’t get much flower and crop growing rain. But we experienced some warmer temps. Strangely enough they came every other day as if Mother Nature was trying to balance the seasonal changes in weather.

Well, now that we are actually checking our phone or2025 paper calendar we see that Spring is marked as happening on Thursday, March 20. Why?

In the Northern Hemisphere Spring is tied to the March Vernal Equinox. That is when the Sun crosses the middle of the equator moving from south to north. It is also the first day of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

In Chicago, Illinois, that happens at 4:01 am CDT, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Corresponding UTC is at 09:01.)

Remember that Meteorological Spring started on March 1 and runs through May 31 every year no matter the timing of the vernal equinox.

For more information visit Spring Time and Date and Farmers’ almanac Spring

BTW March 2025 may be remembered more as the month our two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station finally returned to Earth in time to celebrate the first day of Spring.

Happy Spring

We used to think the beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere. began on March 21 but that thinking has changed.

The equinox occurs when day and night have equal amount of time with 12 hours each. But in the spring, there are a few more minutes of daylight at the mid-temperate latitudes on equinox day, March 19, this year. However, the exact time of the March equinox is 11:06 EDT.

Weather and astrological sites such as EarthSky and the Old Farmer’s Almanac estimate 2-2 1/2 minutes more of daylight. But location does matter. The difference can be 8-10 minutes.

For sunrise and sunset in your are visit Almanac rise and set which is currently set for Chicago, IL.

As to when, sunrise is the time that the edge of the sun first touches the eastern horizon. Sunset is when the last edge of sun touches the western horizon.

March supermoon marks spring

Watch for a supermoon March 20.. (Jodie Jacobs photo)

Look up the night of March 20-21. There will be a supermoon. A supermoon is a full moon (or new moon but you don’t see the new moons even if they are super) that just about coincides with when the moon’s egg-shaped orbit puts it at its perigee, the closest point to earth during that month’s orbit. It happens Tuesday.

This supermoon also coincides with the Northern Hemisphere’s spring equinox. In the Southern Hemisphere it is autumnal equinox. Vacationers take that opposite season into consideration when planning a trip.

You’re right if you think you just saw a suspermoon. The closest supermoon of 2019 was Feb. 19, the middle supermoon of a series of three that occurred Jan. 21, happened again in mid February and ends with the one this week March 20-21.

But this one comes on what is the spring equinox north of the equator and fall equinox south of the equator. Also called the vernal equinox, it is when the Sun is exactly above the equator during the Earth’s axis movement from south to north.

Until this date, the Sun rises and sets somewhat south of the equator. After this date it rises and sets more to the north of the equator. You will likely start noticing the sun beginning to shine on a different part of your property.

What else can you expect? The moon will look larger, mostly as it rises around sunset which is a moon illusion. But this supermoon will also look brighter and ts pull also has a tidal impact. Some people might even complain of sinus headaches.

Of course you will see monthly full moons this year but the one coming up in mid-March is the last of the 2019 supermoons so mark it on your calendar.

For more information visit Earth/Sky.