# Early spring?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-spring/57462>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 10, 2001, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-spring/57462 "2001-03-10T18:24:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-spring/57462/1 "2001-03-10T18:24:42Z")

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Spring is supposed to officially start March 20th.  
It always been either the 21st or 22nd.  
What gives This year?

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-spring/57462/2 "2001-03-10T18:30:05Z")

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Well, spring officially starts whenever the Spring Equinox (exactly 12 hours of day and night) happens, so I guess, for some reason, the Equinox is happening earlier this year.

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**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-spring/57462/3 "2001-03-10T18:30:59Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Spring is supposed to officially start March 20th.

According to whom?

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**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-spring/57462/4 "2001-03-10T18:43:39Z")

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Tis what my calendar and the newscaster said.  
Guess the earth is speeding up;)

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**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-spring/57462/5 "2001-03-10T19:00:07Z")

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The exact moment that spring begins, astronomically, is when the Sun crosses the celestial equator. This is the Vernal Equinox. It can fall on March 21 or 22, depending on various factors and your time zone. Actually there aren’t exactly 12 hours of day and night on the equinoxes, because the Sun isn’t just a point, but a disk, so it’s light before and after the middle of the Sun rises and sets.

You can read more here:

[http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/EarthSeasons.html](http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/EarthSeasons.html)  
[http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/equinoxes.html](http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/equinoxes.html)

This is all according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, official timekeepers for the United States.