Amazon Quiz (October 7): When it’s October, what season is it in the Northern Hemisphere?
Summer
Spring
Autumn
Winter
Answer: Autumn
There are two distinct dates that could be used to define the start of autumn. The equinox, which occurs on September 22 or 23, marks the start of autumn as determined by the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
However, it is crucial to have fixed dates that can be compared in order to collect climate data, hence meteorological autumn always starts on September 1.
The changing of the leaves is one of autumn’s most beautiful hallmarks. Trees start preparing for winter when the days get shorter.
As the days grow shorter throughout autumn, trees start to shut down their food production systems and decrease the amount of chlorophyll in their leaves since there is insufficient light throughout the winter for photosynthesis to take place.
The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin words “equi” (which means “equal”) and “nox” (which means “night”). The equinox is the time when day and night are of equal length.
After the fall equinox, the nights are longer than the days until this is reversed at the spring equinox, therefore we frequently note that the nights start to get shorter from this point.
Generally speaking, but not always, the autumn equinox occurs on September 22 or 23.
The autumn equinox will very rarely fall on September 24 due to the Gregorian calendar’s imperfect symmetry with the Earth’s orbit. It did it most recently in 1931 and will do so again in 2303.
Amazon Quiz: In common years, October begins on the same day of the week as which month?
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