While most of the precipitation potential has passed through the region, a cool pool of somewhat unstable air remains behind that will give us a slight chance of seeing an isolated Tuesday afternoon shower with mostly cloudy conditions. Apart from that, the temperatures will begin to rebound a bit (near 60 degrees Tuesday rising to the low 70s by Thursday.) The clouds should clear out as well, leaving a warm and sunny forecast into the weekend.

If you were keeping score at home, the sun crossed the ecliptic at 3:45 pm local time last Friday, signaling the start of spring.  That’s also the time of the vernal equinox. “Equinox” comes from the Latin meaning “equal nights”, and is an easy way to say that the nights and the days are of equal length. Except they really aren’t.

A quick scan of the sunrise and sunset tables shows that the day is about 20 minutes longer than the night. That additional day length has two causes… both of which might surprise you. Tomorrow I’ll tell you from where all that extra time comes.