First Day of Spring Starts Thursday, the Earliest It's Been in 124 Years

In 2020, the spring equinox falls on Thursday, March 19, which is earlier than it’s been in a century! The first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere:
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The precise timing of the equinox will occur at 11:50 PM EDT on Thursday, 19 March, exactly when the Sun's rays will shine directly on the equator. 

Thursday is just one of the two days in the entire year when the Earth's axis isn't tilted toward or away from the Sun — giving us almost exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness almost everywhere on Earth. The other equinox day happens in September, as Autumn begins. 

The word equinox stems from two Latin words: aequus (equal) and nox (night), and means "equal night," as per the National Weather Service. So you can expect each day in the coming three months to have more and more daylight as the Sun gets higher in the sky, all the way until June's Summer solstice. 

Moreover, the equinox is also one of the two days where almost everywhere on Earth experiences an almost exact due East sunrise, and due West sunset. 

For meteorologists, it's a different story as they define the seasons differently, with Spring having begun on March 1st.

For those in the Southern Hemisphere, Thursday will mark their Autumnal equinox, marking the first day of Autumn.