Fall Begins This Week: Autumnal Equinox, Events Around Puget Sound

SEATTLE — Temperatures are still comfortably in the 70s, but you don't have to wait long until the first day of fall: the autumnal equinox arrives Thursday. This year, the equinox is poised to coincide with the return of clouds and a chance for rain, but nice weather is on track to return for the weekend.

The equinox officially ushers in the new season and its promise of crisp air, show-stopping fall foliage, and cool evenings just perfect for sitting around a fire pit, or perhaps taking in a half-dozen fall and winter meteor showers.

There are plenty of chances around Puget Sound to play in the sunshine before the cold of winter creeps in (the winter solstice is Wednesday, Dec. 21, if you’re keeping track on the calendar). It’s a prime time to go to apple orchards. Pumpkins are ripening on the vine. Farmers are cutting mazes into their cornfields to entertain local families.

Here are a few fall festivities to take in around Seattle:

Upcoming events:

• The 18th Annual Great Pumpkin Beer Festival (Seattle)
  • Sept. 30 - Oct. 1
• Luminata (Seattle)
  • Sept. 24
• Kirkland Oktoberfest (Kirkland)
  • Sept. 23 - 25
• Oktoberfest Northwest (Puyallup)
  • Oct. 7 - 9
• Leavenworth Oktoberfest (Leavenworth)
  • Sept. 30 - Oct. 1
  • Oct. 7 - 8
  • Oct. 14 - 15

Pumpkin patches:

• Bob’s Corn & Pumpkin Farm
• Briscot Farms
• Craven Farm
• Fox Hollow Family Farm
• Jubilee Farm
• Novelty Hill Farm
• Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center
• Stalker Farms
• Stocker Farms
• Suyematsu Farm

The autumnal equinox isn’t a daylong event but rather occurs at the exact moment the sun crosses the celestial equator — that’s at 6:03 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Sept. 22.

• Related: 2022 Fall Foliage Peak Map: When Leaves Are Best Across America

The word equinox comes from the Latin words “aequus,” which means “equal,” and “nox,” which means night. That’s led to the perception that everyone worldwide sees the same amount of daylight and nighttime, but it’s not the absolute truth. To be precise, daylight lasts about eight minutes longer than nighttime on the day of the equinox, EarthSky reported.

Speaking of daylight, it’ll be time for the twice annual clock-changing ritual before you know it. Daylight saving time ends Sunday, Nov. 6. You may recall legislation for year-round daylight saving time sailed through the Senate, but the issue is far from settled in the House.

Here are five other things to know about the September equinox:

1. There’s no guarantee, of course, but the chances of seeing stunning northern lights displays increase after the fall equinox, according to NASA. Both the spring and fall equinoxes are good aurora seasons, but autumn produces a surplus of geomagnetic storms — almost twice the annual average. And right now, the chances of seeing auroras are greater as the sun approaches “solar maximum” in its 11-year cycle and the number of sunspots ramps up.

• Related: Aurora Borealis Displays More Likely In Active Solar Storm Season | Aurora Borealis Hunting: What’s A Kp Index, More Northern Lights Tips

2. The date of the September equinox varies. Usually, it’s on the 22nd, as it is this year, or the 23rd, but it can occur as early as Sept. 21 or as late as Sept. 24, according to Space.com.

A Sept. 21 autumnal equinox hasn’t occurred in several millennia, but some folks alive today may see it the next couple of times it rolls around, in 2092 and then again four years later in 2096. And the first day of fall hasn’t fallen on Sept. 24 since 1931, and that won’t happen again until 2303.

Here’s the reason: A year is defined as 365 days by the Gregorian calendar, but it takes the Earth 365-¼ days to orbit the sun. What this means is the autumnal equinox occurs about six hours later than it did the year prior, which eventually moves the date by a day.

3. Thank Canada for spectacular fall sunsets with more vivid pinks, reds and oranges than at any other time of the year. The Weather Channel offers an explanation: As dry, clean Canadian air begins to sweep across the country, fewer colors of the rainbow spectrum are scattered by air molecules. That means the reds, oranges, yellows and pinks make it through for your sunset-viewing pleasure.

4. No matter where you are in the world, the sun will rise due east and set due west during the fall equinox (the same thing happens during the spring equinox). For the directionally challenged, it’s a good time for a reset. Go outside around sunset or sunrise, find a landmark and mark the sun’s location in relation to it.

5. Fall isn’t just a time to start winterizing homes against stink bugs and other insects and buttoning up other things outside. It’s rutting — or mating — season for deer, elk and moose, and males will battle it out by thrusting their antlers together until one of them gives up or dies.

• Related: Stink Bugs, Other Insects May Enter Your Home Soon: How To Stop Them

Swans, geese and ducks begin their migration south. Frogs burrow deep into mudholes to wait out the winter. Chipmunks retreat to their underground tunnels. Bears eat and drink almost nonstop as they prepare for hibernation.

And, according to the Mother Nature Network, the male Siberian hamster goes through a huge biological change: Its testicles swell almost 17 times their normal size. There’s a thing you know now.