It's finally the start of spring or - for those who want to impress their fancy friends - the start of the vernal equinox.
As you celebrate the end of what was a bitterly cold winter and bask in the milder weather that spring brings, you can impress those fanciest of friends even further by peppering your conversations with some of the following interesting facts:
What's the vernal equinox?
It's one of the two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, according to the National Weather Service. This results in a nearly equal amount of daylight and darkness.
Furthermore, days will be getting longer than nights, a phenomenon that will continue until the autumnal equinox in September, according to the NWS.
It's not technically spring ... yet
Okay, so yes, the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere is Wednesday, March 20, but the key word here is "day."
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Technically, spring doesn't actually start until 5:58 p.m. ET. Think of it like your birthday: even if you were born at, say, 10 p.m., you'll still want people to be wishing you a happy birthday before then.
Spring's the same way; just because it technically doesn't start until nearly 6 in the evening doesn't mean we don't celebrate the sun's warm rays before that time. So, uh, happy birthday, spring!
Keep an eye out for the "super worm equinox moon"
The first day of spring also coincides with the last super moon of 2019: the "super worm equinox moon." A supermoon is a full moon that has reached its closest point to Earth, making it look bigger and brighter than an average moon.
This latest supermoon gets its name based on the fact that it comes at the time of the year when snow starts to melt and worms start emerging from the ground.
The moon will be completely full at 9:43 p.m. ET. According to NBC10 First Alert Meteorologist Steve Sosna, there will be some clouds over the Philadelphia region around that time, but you should still be able to see the super worm equinox moon if you look up at the sky.
Beware the "onion snow"
While the start of spring may signal milder weather, that doesn't mean we can't still get some winter weather sticking around. Cue, the "onion snow."
This is a nickname for late-season snow that falls despite it being spring, according to Sosna. It's usually not heavy and, tough uncommon in Philadelphia, it can fall in the northern and western Pennsylvania suburbs and the Lehigh Valley.
