In meteorology, autumn begins on September 1, but the September equinox gives way to astronomical autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, and spring in the Southern Hemisphere.
Autumn 2024 will begin in the Northern Hemisphere on September 22 at 2:44 p.m. EST, according to the National Astronomical Observatory. The season lasts about 89 days and 21 hours, ending on December 21 with the start of winter.
The beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere is determined by the moment when the Earth passes the point in its orbit at which the center of the Sun crosses the celestial equator in its apparent motion towards the south. On the day when this happens, the length of day and night practically coincides. This circumstance is also called the autumnal equinox.
While fall begins in the Northern Hemisphere, spring begins in the Southern Hemisphere.
During the fall of 2024, an annular solar eclipse will occur on October 2, which will be visible in the Pacific and South America.
Other phenomena of astronomical interest during the fall of 2024 will be the Extremely Severe meteor shower, which is expected to reach its maximum around October 8, the Orionids, with a maximum around October 21, the Leonids, with a maximum around November 17, and the Geminids, with a maximum around October 21. The Geminids will have a maximum around December 14. The fall full moon will occur on October 17, November 15, and December 15.
The beginning of autumn can occur, at most, on four different dates in the calendar (from September 21 to 24). Throughout the 21st century, autumn will begin on September 22 and 23 (the official Spanish date), with its first beginning in 2096 and its last beginning in 2003. The differences from year to year are due to the way in which autumn is celebrated. The sequence of years according to the calendar (some leap years and some not) is proportional to the duration of each orbit of the Earth around the Sun.
Early autumn is the time of year when the length of the day decreases most rapidly. At peninsular latitudes, the sun rises more than a minute later in the morning than the day before, and sets more than a minute earlier in the afternoon. As a result, in early autumn, the time the sun is above the horizon decreases by about three minutes each day.
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