By Tom Crawford
tcrawford@abcnews4.com
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) -- You may have noticed more than a few leaves that have begun to appear on
your lawn.
There have been a few mornings that there has been a little nip in
the air as well and yes we have passed the Fall equinox. And yes your days
seem to be getting shorter, at least with daylight.
Our earth is tilted on an axis that is 23 and a half degrees. As
the earth continues to orbit around the sun, the Northern and Southern
Hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun's light and of course warmth in
the most direct position.
Many, during the fall season, drive to the upstate of South
Carolina to experience the beauty of the Fall foliage. Or as we call it, the
leaves changing color.
Because of South Carolina's warm Fall weather, the peak of the
foliage display is later than that of the North. Normally the best time to
observe these colors are between the end of October and early November.
We have an equinox that occurs twice a year. That would of
course be Spring and Fall. If we look at the tilt of the earth and the earth's
orbit around the sun, combine those in such a way, the axis is set up neither
away from nor toward the sun.
So here is the bottom line. The earth's two hemispheres were receiving the same amount of daylight on Sept 22, at least for a short period of
time. As we continue into the next several days and weeks we will notice that
those great evenings that the sun set at 8:30 have truly been a thing off the
past, at least for this year.
Our days of plenty of sunshine will continue to
magically disappear until the time change. Day light savings time ends
on Sunday November 4.
On Sunday November the 4, we turn our clocks back
one hour. Or as the old saying goes, we Fall back one hour. We gain an hour of
sleep, but lose an hour of daylight.
During these latter days of September it seemed like we are
losing nearly 2 minutes a day of daylight. As we move closer to winter which
begins December 21, our loss of daylight will begin to slow rather
quickly.
When the time comes (no pun intended), just after December
21 we will slowly, and I mean slowly, see our days of daylight start
to increase.
Magnolia Gardens (Crystal Bruce/WCIV)
