Spring Countdown 2027

Spring 2027 begins at the March equinox, not on the 1st of the month. The date moves: depending on the year, the equinox falls on 19, 20 or 21 March. The countdown above targets the exact astronomical instant, not an approximation.

Why the date shifts. One full orbit of the Earth around the Sun takes about 365 days and 6 hours. Each year the equinox therefore slides almost six hours later, and the leap day pulls it back a whole day. That tug-of-war is what spreads the date across three calendar days.

Are day and night really equal? Almost, but not quite. The word equinox promises a perfect split, yet the atmosphere bends sunlight and sunrise is timed from the first edge of the Sun's disc: daylight wins by several minutes. True equality, the equilux, happens a few days earlier at mid-latitudes.

Two springs coexist. Meteorologists start theirs on 1 March, so they can work with whole three-month blocks. This countdown tracks the astronomical one.

In the southern hemisphere the same instant opens autumn: in Buenos Aires or Sydney, the March equinox announces the cold season.