Today is the vernal equinox and marks the first day of astronomical spring (because as next week will show, even though it is technically ‘spring’, it won’t feel that way from a weather or climatological perspective).

The equinox denotes the precise date when the sun is directly overhead of the equator at noon. Although it is popularly stated that the equinox is also the date when the length of day and night are equal, this is not necessarily true depending on where you are on the planet. For example, the exact length of daylight for NYC today is 12 hours and 8 minutes, according to astronomical data from Weather Underground. That means the actual equinox for NYC occurred a couple of days ago.

Spring Climate Outlook

This is a good time for us to look ahead towards the forecast climate trends for the United States. Below you’ll see a map showing the Climate Prediction Center’s three-month outlook for both temperature and precipitation. Note that the northern tier of the US is forecast to have anywhere between 33% and 40% chances of a cooler than average spring, while much of the southern and western US is forecast to have between 33% and 50% chances of a warmer than average spring. California in particular is forecast to have 50% chance of warmer than average spring, combined with 33%-40% chance of below normal precipitation, which will be conducive for the persistence of the severe drought in the region.

NYC and the surrounding region is in a zone of equal chances, meaning there’s no strong indication as to whether we’ll have an above, below, or normal spring in terms of both temperature and precipitation.