Freeze Warning on the Heels of the First Day of Spring 2013

Attention Oconee County gardeners and warm weather lovers! Rejoice - the season we've longed for all winter long has arrived. The first day of spring officially began on March 20, 2013 at exactly at 7:02 a.m. (EDT).

But don't pack away the sweaters just yet. There's a threat of another round of freezing temperatures.

According to weather.com, Oconee and surrounding counties are under a freeze warning from 4 a.m. until 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 21. The warm up is slow into the next week, but spring surely will begin to make its presence felt in the near future.

Traditionally, we’ve celebrated the beginning of spring on March 21, but astronomers and calendar manufacturers alike now say that the spring season starts one day earlier, March 20, in all time zones in North America.

And did you know that not all of the seasons are equally divided in terms of days? The current seasonal lengths for the Northern Hemisphere are:

Summer – 93.641 days
Autumn – 89.834 days
Winter – 88.994 days
Spring – 92.771 days

For those who prefer warmer weather, there is good news: the warm seasons, spring and summer, combined are 7.584 days longer than the colder seasons, fall and winter.

Happy spring, but don't put the pets and plants out just yet!