By Mary O’KEEFE

The first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere – this year is on March 20 at 7:46 a.m. That is actually the spring equinox, or vernal equinox, and is when the Sun is exactly above the equator, when day and night are of equal length. 

In the Northern Hemisphere the vernal equinox is when the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north. In the Southern Hemisphere the equinox occurs on Sept. 22 or Sept. 23 when the Sun moves south across the celestial equator. According to the astronomical definition of the seasons, the vernal equinox also marks the beginning of spring, which lasts until the summer solstice (which occurs on June 20 or June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, on Dec. 21 or Dec. 22 in the Southern Hemisphere), according to Britannica. 

But wait – nothing can be easy and simple; to just say, “Okay, March 20 it is.” The meteorological spring actually arrives on March 1. So we are in spring/not spring.

“The reason why we have seasons in the first place is because of the tilt of the Earth. It causes the sun’s angle in the sky to change throughout the year, which leads to different amounts of sunlight throughout the year,” stated Rob Shackelford, meteorologist and climate scientist for weather.com in an article “Meteorologists Say Spring Starts Sunday, And Yes We Know That is Before The Equinox.”

Why do meteorologists go with March 1? 

“One word: temperature,” he stated. 

The coldest three months in the Northern Hemisphere are usually December through February; the warmest are normally June to August. These are known as meteorological winter and summer. 

“But meteorological seasons don’t line up exactly with astronomical seasons. Astronomical winter, for example, is late December through late March. And astronomical summer is late June through late September,” Shackelford stated. “By grouping the seasons by temperature, you’re also grouping the seasons more by common weather patterns. People often think of December as winter even though, technically, most of the month is fall.”

Spring will give us more sunlight; in fact in higher elevations almost 30 to 45 more minutes throughout the month. 

This is science and it’s cool that we know so much about so much but spring has always brought with it the poetry of an artistic soul. 

Greeks turned tragedy on its head with the story of Persephone, the goddess queen of the underworld and the wife of Hades. Hades, the god of the underworld, desired to possess Persephone and to make her his wife. He knew her mother, Demeter, would not agree to this so one day while Persephone was gathering flowers, Hades rode from the underworld on his black chariot and abducted her. Demeter, by the way, was the goddess of agriculture, harvest and fertility. 

There are frightening images of Persephone’s abduction – as she was reaching for her freedom she is drawn down into the underworld. Demeter searched for her daughter in vain until she was told by Hecate, a Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft, that her daughter had been taken away – but she did not know by whom. 

The two goddesses went to Apollo who, being the god of the Sun, saw everything. He knew what had happened. Apollo defended Hades but Demeter did not see how Hades, who abducted her daughter, could possibly be a good guy and knew he certainly was not a good husband. 

Demeter was also the goddess of seasons and the loss of her daughter was so great that, as she roamed the Earth, she refused to allow the trees to bear fruit and the Earth to nurture vegetables and herbs. We know this as fall and winter when the leaves begin to fall. Demeter threatened to keep the earth barren forever – which would not be good for humankind. Zeus, king of the gods, knew this was a bad thing and he feared he would be blamed for the barren earth, so he sent a messenger to demand Persephone be returned to her mother. 

It looked like the daughter would be returned to her mother and all would be as it was with a bountiful garden all year round; however, Hades, the one that Apollo thought would be a good husband, had one more trick up his sleeve. Persephone had been so distraught after being kidnapped and held against her will in the underworld that she had not eaten. Hades offered her just a few bites of food and she ended up eating four pomegranate seeds. Those few seeds were enough – anyone who tasted the food of Hades was condemned to remain in the underworld forever. 

But mama came to the rescue again. A deal was made that Persephone would return to Hades for four months of the year and the rest of the time she would spend above ground with her mother. 

Demeter agreed to this so when her daughter appeared from Hades the Earth once again bloomed – what we know as spring – and when she returns to Hades the world becomes barren again – winter. 

I know the science behind spring – vernal equinox – but the idea that spring is the celebration of a mother’s love and determination makes me look at blooming flowers a little differently. 

As of press time a wind advisory had been issued by NOAA through this morning with gusts between 20 to 30 mph. The winds are expected to die down after mid-morning but then pick up again Friday morning. The Friday winds are more typical Santa Anas, bringing warmer weather. 

There may be some showers along the I5 corridor but none are expected in our area, according to NOAA.

Temperatures will be between the upper 60s today and low 70s through Tuesday. 

NOAA expects to issue another wind advisory sometime later today.