Saturday is the Fall Equinox

Summer is officially gone. Today is the first day of fall, or the autumnal equinox.

But what exactly is the autumnal equinox? 

Equinoxes fall on the halfway point between solstices and occur, according to the Washington Post, "when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are of roughly equal length, everywhere in the world."

The nearly equal 12 hours of light and darkness can be attributed to the Earth's lack of an axial tilt on the day of the equinox. In fact, the word equinox is derived from the Latin words aequus, meaning equal, and nox, meaning night.

In Scotts Valley, according to sunrisesunset.com, the sun will come up at 6:56 a.m. and set at 7:06 p.m on the autumnal equinox. As you notice, that is not actually a perfect 12 hours of light and darkness. As timeanddate.com reports, this is because of issues such as light refraction and other reasons.

See ya next year, summer. Hello fall, and happy autumnal equinox!

Here's the weekend forecast according to the National Weather Service:

• Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon.
• Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52. Southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening.
• Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon.
• Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 53. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.