THE Dorset coast was treated to a glorious sunrise as Saturday heralded the spring equinox.
Early risers were able to enjoy a stunning start to the morning, with hardy souls out and about to take to the waves or go for a stroll along Boscombe beach.
Spring equinox is the first day of astronomical spring when day and night are almost exactly the same length.
But the spring season actually has two different start dates in the UK and has split opinion, it all depends on how you calculate it.
Meteorological vs astronomical spring
What is named the first day of spring depends on whether you are using the meteorological or astronomical definition of the seasons.
The meteorological is arguably the simpler to understand as it splits the year into four seasons of three full months each based on the Gregorian calendar, making it easier to compare seasonal and monthly statistics.
This is the more widely understood concept as it means every year spring begins on March 1 and lasts until May 31, with summer beginning on June 1.
However, the astronomical season is less straightforward as it depends on the date of the spring equinox, which means the date can vary slightly from year to year and tends to arrive later.
In 2021, the spring, or vernal, equinox falls on Saturday, March 20. This is the most common date for the phenomenon, although it can fall any time between the 19th and 21st of the month.
The astronomical spring will then last until the summer solstice, which in 2021 lands on Monday 21 June and is the ‘longest day of the year’, having the most daylight hours.
How equinoxes work
The equinox gets its name from the Latin term for “equal night” and marks one of two points in the year when the equator is the closest part of Earth to the sun, around March 20.
The other similar date is around September 22 which is the autumn equinox.
These dates occur between the summer and winter solstices marking the point the Sun crosses the equator's path and becomes positioned exactly above the equator between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
During the equinox, day and night will be about the same length, however, the spring equinox marks the beginning of spring and from this day forward the day is longer than the night.
The autumnal and spring equinoxes mark the point when the two hemispheres swap over, while the summer and winter solstices denote the sun reaching its most northerly and southerly points.
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