Fall is upon us!

Since our weather will be pretty quiet the next couple of days aside from some fog tonight, this post is about our good friend, the autumnal equinox.

Adam Painter jotted on our official weather center calendar that fall begins tomorrow at 10:44 a.m. CDT. Technically speaking, the entire day isn't the equinox - 10:44 a.m. CDT is the equinox. That's when the Sun will appear directly over the equator. At 10:45 a.m. CDT, the equinox will be over as the Sun continues its jaunt toward the Tropic of Capricorn. That's where the Sun appears directly overhead on our first day of winter.

"Equinox" roughly means "equal night" in Latin. A lot of people think that on the first day of fall, everywhere on Earth will have 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. Not so! There are various things that affect length of daylight, such as the refraction of light by our atmosphere and the elevation of your location. In Rockford, sunrise tomorrow is at 6:44 a.m., while sunset is at 6:53 p.m. That gives us 12 hours, 8 minutes, and 33 seconds of daylight. The closest we'll get to a 12-hour day/12-hour night is on Thursday, when we have 12 hours and 4 seconds of daylight. On Friday, we'll have more darkness in a day than daylight.

Oh, and there's also that myth that you can balance an egg only on the equinox. Not true! You can do it any day of the year, as long as you have a level surface, lots of patience, and entirely too much time on your hands. :)