Victor Szwed
A week ago we passed the Spring Equinox which is when the day and night are of equal length. After September 21st the days started to get longer than the nights. “Equinox” means “Equal night”. The Astronomical Calendar recognises that Spring started then. The Meteorological Calendar divides the year into four seasons based on months and on temperature cycles rather than on the position of the sun.
In the northern Hemisphere, the Persian New Year commences on their Spring (March) Equinox. Also, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows March 21. The name “Easter” was taken from the Anglo-Saxon “Eostre” who was the goddess of Spring or renewal and was celebrated on the equinox. A number of Christian celebrations were “adjusted” to work in with Pagan celebrations to help with their acceptance when Christianity was brought into Great Britain.
Don’t forget that Daylight Saving starts 2am this coming Sunday 3rd of October. Turn your clocks forward an hour. Fortunately many electronic systems now do that automatically.
How has our Spring weather been? Fairly typical on most aspects. September rainfall totalled 78.8mm, just below the 88.6mm average. This brings the 2021 total to 766.8mm compared with the long-term average of 688.6mm.
The Bureau continues to forecast that September to December rainfall is likely to be above average for the eastern two thirds of Australia with the West being close to average and the west coast of Tasmania below average.
The significant rain forecast for Wednesday this week slipped away to the north with Bendigo and other localities getting good falls while our area got 1 to 2mm. The Bureau counts September 30th rainfall as the 24 hour total to 9am on the 30th. Any rain on the 30th after 9am goes into the 1st of October reading. Not sure why, maybe it is historical as the Bureau people were not up at midnight years ago to check their rain gauges. Now many systems are electronic and mine works on the real 24 hour time for the 30th.
Most of Victoria is looking fantastically green now with bumper crops being forecast. Canada has had very hot dry weather with a dramatic decrease in certain crops such as Canola resulting in a doubling of prices which benefits our farmers.
Victor Szwed is a Daylesford resident who writes a regular weather column for The Wombat Post.
Tulips welcome Spring (Photo: Victor Szwed)
