Fall Equinox Comes to Ashburn on Saturday

Today is the first day of fall, which means another fall (or autumnal) equinox is here.

But what is the autumnal equinox? 

Equinoxes fall on the halfway point between solstices and occur, according to the Washington Post, "when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are of roughly equal length, everywhere in the world."

The nearly equal 12 hours of light and darkness can be attributed to the Earth's lack of an axial tilt on the day of the equinox. In fact, the word equinox is derived from the Latin words aequus, meaning equal, and nox, meaning night.

In Ashburn, according to sunrisesunset.com, the sun will come up at 6:58 a.m. and set at 7:08 p.m. on the autumnal equinox. As you notice, that is not actually a perfect 12 hours of light and darkness. As timeanddate.com reports, this is because of issues such as light refraction.

See ya next year, summer. Hello fall, and happy autumnal equinox!

Here's the weekend forecast according to the National Weather Service:

• Saturday: There will be patchy fog before 10 a.m., and possibly a thunderstorm after 3 p.m. Otherwise, skies will be mostly sunny with a high near 85 and a South wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60 percent.
• Saturday Night: Before 9 p.m., meteorologists predict scattered showers and thunderstorms, which will clear up around 1 a.m. Low around 55; chance of precipitation is 55 percent. 
• Sunday: Sunny and clear, high near 68. 
• Sunday Night: It's definitely fall: Temperatures will dip to 45 degrees.