Spring has sprung – it's astronomical!

Spring! Here comes the Sun!

Welcome to the first day of spring, a day in which Earth's northern hemisphere residents have high hopes they won't have to deal with frigid weather and ice storms for many months – and you'll be free of The Weather Channel, and its ridiculous practice of “naming” winter storms.

Ridiculous?

Trillium beginning to bloom at Enlow Fork, Greene County, Pa. in 2018.

You see, the winter storm names are native to The Weather Channel. No government service uses them; they're not official in any way! You won't hear them from the National Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, not even the Punxsutawney Center for Marmota Monax Predictions.

In fact, as an editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in years gone by, I crafted an edict backed by the editor that these winter storm names NOT be used in print or online products.

Simply, I believe, the use of winter storm names is a clever way of promoting The Weather Channel. Yep. Use them, and you're giving TWC a pat on the barometric back. Because no other official weather  organization else uses them.

OK, fine. Winter is over.

So what do I get in an online feed from The Weather Channel on this, the wonderful day of the vernal equinox?

A video proclaiming there are TWO kinds of spring.

Wait . . . what?

Yes, there is meteorological spring and astronomical spring.

I get it. Weather forecasters and gurus everywhere coined “meteorological spring” for their own purposes. It's a manner of keeping records. As the Internet explains to me, “meteorologists recognize March 1 as the first day of meteorological spring, which is based on annual temperature cycles and the Gregorian calendar.”

Whatever.

But let's not unleash this video on an unsuspecting public to further confuse them.

If we're going to have meteorological spring, why can't we have others?

Peteyological spring? Yes! That would start Jan. 7, the date of the latest sunrise at about 40 degrees north. Oh, the Sun finally is coming back! Or for my lovely wife, we could have Amyological spring. It starts on her birthday, March 15. Of course, we could have Punxsutawneyological spring, but only if Phil doesn't see his shadow.

Let me be clear:

Seasons are ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS. Period.

Oh, I understand. There still might be snow in May in Pittsburgh (I've seen it). Many of you will hate it.

But at 5:24 p.m. EDT March 20, 2023, we celebrated the vernal equinox – the start of spring in the northern hemisphere – as an astronomical event.

Astronomical.

The Earth, as it tilts like a top on its spinning axis, today is situated so that the Sun is overhead at midway at the equator. And because of this planetary tilt, the Sun appears to be moving north to bring us summer in a few months. Remember how low the Sun appeared to us on the short days of December and January? The tilt.

And maybe you've noticed the Sun is rising due east and setting due west. Wow . . . must be astronomy!

Take note: IF . . . if these astronomical events did not occur, we would have no reason for meteorological spring, no Peteyological spring, no improving weather.

Read that again. I'll wait. Take your time.

Seasons are astronomical. Here's a post from StarDate with more information.

I am not upset at The Weather Channel because Maria LaRosa (a Penn State lady!) no longer is there. Where is Heather Tesch? It's just that it would be better to accurately forecast the weather than share inaccurate agendas and promotions.

Astronomy already has taken quite a hit from astrology, which has no scientific-based evidence to back its, uh, predictions. Too many people confuse the two and, astonishingly, believe the latter.

Weather scientists should be just that – scientists. And they should promote and disseminate the science and the factual information it uncovers.

Spring, officially, has sprung. Indeed, it's astronomical!