Today marks the start of a new month! No longer are we in the depths of winter as we kick off the first day of March.
Not only do we have all these amazing and fun events happening in Houston this weekend, but we also have the start of a new season: Meteorological Spring.
Now, you may be wondering, what is Meteorological Spring, and how does it differ from astronomical spring?
Well, you’ll find all your answers here!
Meteorological Spring:
Meteorological Spring is the start of a three-month period that Meteorologists use to describe the change of the seasons based on the temperature.
Unlike Astronomical Spring, Meteorological Spring encompasses all of March, April, and May.
Astronomical Spring happens around March 19-20—which is dependent if there is a leap year and signifies that Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward or away from the sun, giving us equal days of daylight and darkness. This is also known as the Vernal Equinox.
This year, Astronomical Spring is on March 20 at 5:01 a.m. EDT.
More daylight for Houston:
As we go throughout the month of March, you’ll notice that the days are becoming longer.
So much so, that we’ll gain approximately 45-50 minutes of daylight by the time we get to the end of the month!
Don’t forget to set your clocks an hour ahead as Daylight Savings begins on Sunday, March 9 this year!
Severe weather season:
Not only is March 1 the start of Meteorological Spring, but it also marks the start of severe weather season.
This part of the season lasts with us from March 1-May 31.
In fact, to kick off this spring season, we have the potential of seeing strong to severe storms on Tuesday.
It is currently too early to pinpoint where exactly storms will form and hit, and what the threats are as the forecast can change.
Continue to check in with us, we’ll keep you updated as new data comes out.
A warm February in Houston:
If you were wondering how we did for the month of February, well, it was WARM.
Even with a week of below average temperatures (remember how cold it was?), for most of the second month of the year, we were still above average.