# It's Spring!



## Squint-eyed Southerner (Mar 18, 2020)

With all the bad news, something to rejoice about!


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## CirdanLinweilin (Mar 19, 2020)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> With all the bad news, something to rejoice about!


I thought that was March 21st???



CL


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## Olorgando (Mar 19, 2020)

Our calendar claims it to be 20 March, tomorrow.
But that's for astronomers (and for calculating Easter), the spring (or vernal) equinox.
Meteorologists (at least in Germany) prefer to go by calendar months rather than shifty astronomical dates, so for them spring began on 01 March.
And the weather does not care squat for astronomy or calendars, we've had daytime highs topping 15°C or 59°F (20°C or 68°F in south-west Germany bordering on France) for some days now, which is more like (early) summer. If we get some nice showers intermittently, it cold sent the flora blooming and budding in a hurry. If we get some sort of drought (as our area is prone to), this could literally be nipped in the bud. And night frosts can, with a shift of wind, still occur in April or May, which is the stuff of nightmare for fruit and wine farmers.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Mar 19, 2020)




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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Mar 19, 2020)

First Day of Spring 2022: The Spring Equinox


In 2022, the spring equinox (also called the March equinox or vernal equinox) occurs on Sunday, March 20! This event marks the astronomical first day of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere. What does equinox mean? What happens on the equinox?




www.almanac.com


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## Olorgando (Mar 19, 2020)

Erestor Arcamen said:


>


Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky also did a work on the topic, "The Rite of Spring", which is to be found on Disney's best product by light years, the 1940 cartoon with classical music performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski, "Fantasia". And I may have seen it performed live, circa 1974 or 1975, by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Solti. I would guess Vivaldi's and Stravinsky's approaches to the theme to be quite divergent ...


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Mar 19, 2020)

Olorgando said:


> I would guess Vivaldi's and Stravinsky's approaches to the theme to be quite divergent ...


Good guess!  

Stravinsky was, to put it mildly, unhappy with the cuts made for the movie, though obviously they couldn't include the whole piece. In the program notes for his own recording, he said "I won't comment on the film itself, as I do not wish to criticize an unresisting imecilitiy. . ."

Come now, Igor -- tell us what you really think!


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## Squint-eyed Southerner (Mar 20, 2021)

Time to revive this thread. Yippee!

(At least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. 😁)

Happy Vernal Equinox, everybody!


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## grendel (Mar 20, 2021)

Is it? Is it indeed? It is news to me but it is not a surprise. Good! Very good! You lighten my heart! I think I'll have a beer!


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## Halasían (Mar 21, 2021)

Happy Autumn! It was a chill rainy Sunday here.


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## Olorgando (Mar 21, 2021)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> Happy Vernal Equinox, everybody!


Equinox, maybe; spring, no. The weather is more like late winter, with night frosts and the occasional dusting of snow (which melts quickly).
The alpine region very recently had snowfalls accumulating to between a half and a full meter, or over a foot and a half to over three feet, with avalanche warnings going way up.
At the end of February we had a three-day spell with temps somewhere in Germany topping 20°C or 68°F, a record for the month. About two weeks earlier, we had a severe cold snap with temps in double digits minus almost everywhere, meaning colder than 14°F.
The weather is playing see-saw here, is what it is doing. At least we are getting badly-needed precipitation.


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