As we set clocks ahead, a look back, forward
The official start of spring will be 12:30 a.m. March 20, but an unofficial sign of the changing seasons appears this weekend when clocks are set ahead an hour for daylight-saving time.
By act of Congress, clocks in most areas of the United States are adjusted ahead one hour in the summer months (known as daylight-saving time) and turned back one hour in the winter months (standard time).
The dates marking the beginning and end of daylight-saving time have changed as Congress has passed new statutes. As of 2007, daylight-saving time begins in the United States on the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November.
While the dates of the time shift have changed, the arrival of the vernal equinox is set in stone, or maybe the stars.
The vernal equinox, according to James Clem, assistant professor of physics at Grove City College, marks when the sun crosses the celestial equator, an imaginary line in the sky directly over the equator, as the sun travels south to north.
On that day, almost all points on the Earth will experience a nearly equal number of daylight and nighttime hours, reaching an equinox that translates from Latin as “equal night”).
Clem said as the season advances the sun rises earlier and sets later each day and follows a higher path in the sky giving rise to longer days and shorter nights.
This means more solar energy strikes the Earth's surface and, along with more daylight, leads to an increase in air temperatures.
This year the transition to spring will be less jarring than last year when Butler County was emerging from one of the snowiest and at times coldest winters on record.
David Samuel, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, the State College-based weather forecasting operation, said, “In a nutshell, it was a pretty warm and mild winter, but not a snowless winter. We had 16 inches of snow this season to date.”Samuel said figures for Butler County were taken from readings at the Butler County Airport.“From Dec. 22 to March 2, we have averaged 2.3 degrees above normal. Sixty six degrees was our highest temperature in that stretch on Feb. 22,” said Samuel.The high reached the mid-50s on Christmas Day, he said, and on Dec. 27 it was 63.Samuel said there were 29 days with below-freezing temperatues in January. AccuWeather records showed January was 1.5 degrees below-average temperature wise, but February had 26 days without a low below 32 degrees.The two coldest days in that period were minus 6 Feb. 14 and 5 below Feb. 13.There was also less snow this winter.“From Dec. 22, we had 15.4 inches of snow compared with 41.6 inches in the same period last year,” Samuel said.That's been good news for the game animal population in Butler County, said Randy Pilarcik, one of three Pennsylvania Game Commission wildlife conservation officers assigned here.“It looks like everything is going good with the deer and turkey populations,” said Pilarcik who is responsible for the western edge of the county along the Interstate 79 corridor.Pilarcik said, “In Butler County, as opposed to a lot of the big woods counties where the animal population is dependent on the acorn crop, there are a lot of farms and different kinds of food for them.”Unfortunately, he said much of that food is ornamental shrubs. “We get a lot of complaints about that,” he said.
“I've been seeing nice flocks of turkeys,” Pilarcik said, which means there should be plenty of targets when spring gobbler season comes in April 30. (A special day of spring gobbler for junior hunters is April 23.)Asked what's in store for the spring in Butler County, Samuel noted, “El Niño is still present in the Pacific. It will continue to be a main driver in our weather patterns.”“But we are looking at some classic March weather. It could snow and then be 70.”AccuWeather is calling for above-average temperatures during much of this week in the Northeast.“There are signs of a reversal in the warm pattern between Palm Sunday and Easter,” said AccuWeather chief meteorologist Elliott Abrams. “It will not necessarily snow throughout the Northeast during that period, but it could get cold enough for that to happen in parts of the region.”“Beyond that, look for a lot of back and forth for the next month. The normal high for this time of year is in the lower 40s,” Samuel said.“This will be a roller-coaster ride of a month that will come out to be above normal temperature wise,” he said, but warned, “We could still have some pretty cold temperatures although we could see some daffodils popping up.”Also arriving early this year will be Easter on March 27.Easter, which can be celebrated as early as March 22 and as late as April 25, is a “movable feast” because of the difficulty in reconciling the Jewish lunar calendar with the Gregorian solar calendar, according to the Rev. Philip Farrell, episcopal vicar for Region Four of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.“It's a confusing thing. When did Jesus die?” asked Farrell.“The Gospel writers Matthew, Mark and Luke said the Last Supper was on Passover, and Jesus died the day after Passover. John says Jesus died on Passover,” Farrell said.“Passover is the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan.”But Farrell said the Jewish calendar is based on cycles of the lunar phases, while the Gregorian calendar is based on the revolution of the Earth around the sun.“So Easter is dependent on Passover which is based on a lunar calendar which must be translated to a solar calendar for Christians which causes all sorts of confusion,” Farrell said.“In 325, the Council of Nicaea determined the date for Easter, but not as a specific date per se but as a formula,” said Farrell. That formulas says that Easter will be on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. The vernal equinox is March 20, the next full moon is March 23 and the Sunday following that is March 27.For those wanting to plan in advance, Easter Sunday will fall on April 16 in 2017.
