Balance

We've been taught that there should be 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness on the first day of spring.

Spring begins on Monday, March 19, 2012 at 10:14PM MST. (-7 GMT)

Tucson's day of equal daylight and dark hours, though, is today.

One reason for this displacement of the day of "equality" away from the first day of spring is because the sun's light is actually bent through our atmosphere. This results in us seeing the sun rising BEFORE it actually hits the horizon and setting AFTER it has already hit the horizon. This creates the illusion of sunrise being earlier and sunset being later than they actually are.

So today - 12 hours of each for us and six extra minutes of sunlight on Monday!

Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend!

PS I liked the silhouette of the branches and bird against the lit sky and clouds. It seemed fitting for today. I think I may have chosen the color version over this in hindsight.