Fall Equinox
Monday | September 22, 2024
Occurs at 1:19 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT)
The fall equinox (also known as the autumnal equinox) marks the first day of autumn for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere. Today the Earth is tilting neither toward nor away from the sun. This means at the moment of the fall equinox, the sun is directly above the equator, and we experience an almost equal amount of daylight and darkness.
After the fall equinox, the total amount of daylight hours is shorter than the total amount of nighttime hours. We experience sunrise later and sunset earlier. This pattern will end on the day of the winter solstice (in December), when we begin to notice a gradual increase in daylight hours.
Most of us here in the Chicago area look forward to seeing a Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the first full moon that occurs closest to the time of the fall equinox, either right before in September or right after in October. The term Harvest Moon was adopted because a full moon appears around the time of sunset for several nights, historically giving farmers just enough extra time and light to get their crops in before the onset of hard frosts.
Look for the Harvest Moon to first appear in the Chicago area on Oct 6, 2025, at 10:47 PM CDT.
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