141 Days

It has been over one-third of a year since we have seen temperatures reach the 80s in the Commonwealth...141 days to be exact. We will make a run at the mark for both Saturday and Sunday. It's hard to believe that earlier this week, Old Man Winter had a strong grip on the area. The graph below is a plot of high temperatures and shows how quickly things changed through the week (normal high is 54).

Spring Things

This weekend’s high temperatures will be in the upper 70’s and low 80’s in Central Virginia, which are our average highs in late May and early June! It truly will feel like the heart of Spring this weekend, and we will also “pick up” an additional hour of daylight in the evening as Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday at 2 a.m.

DST is when we “Spring Forward” our clocks, a practice that has been in effect in the United States since 1918, with some adjustments through the years. This clock-shift is meant to provide more afternoon and early evening sunlight hours for outdoor activities, when the days are also already becoming longer with the Earth’s tilt providing more hours of sunlight for the Northern Hemisphere. In the wintertime, Standard Time is observed to allow the most productive use of morning and early afternoon daylight time for work, when days are shorter from the Earth’s tilt cutting daylight hours for the Northern Hemisphere.

The change back to Daylight Saving Time usually gets people thinking about the start of Spring. The Vernal Equinox, which is the official First Day of Spring, occurs this year on March 20 at 7:44 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. This is when the Sun’s rays reaching the Earth are directly over the Equator. Over the coming months, most of the Sun’s rays will be directed at the Northern Hemisphere, taking us into Summer, while the Southern Hemisphere transitions to Winter.
--Carrie