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Fall officially arrives Monday night

Posted at 10:50 PM, Sep 20, 2014
and last updated 2014-09-20 22:50:56-04

WEST MICHIGAN — Welcome to the fall, the autumnal equinox, the end of summer! As the headline says…Fall officially arrives Monday night at 10:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time. That’s the precise moment when the sun is directly overhead of the equator providing equal days/equal nights (equinox) across the globe…generally about 12 hours of each.

This signals the start of fall for the northern hemisphere and the start of spring for the southern hemisphere. Our days here in the north will really start getting shorter now as the sun continues its track further south and lower on our horizon with each passing day and week.

While the calendar may soon say fall, the weather for the upcoming week looks like it may be quite the opposite. High pressure building in to the region will deliver dry, quiet weather with warming temperatures. We should eventually reach the mid/upper 70s by mid/late week (Wednesday/Thursday). This technically does NOT qualify as Indian Summer since we haven’t officially had a hard, widespread frost or freeze.

Normal/average high temps for this time of year have us around 70 degrees. High pressure will rule as it forces the air on a regional scale to sink. That tends to dry the atmosphere out and the end result is usually sunshine. You can click here to get more information and history on the equinox.

Don’t forget to check the FOX 17 forecast by going to www.fox17online.com/weather. Have a pleasant week!