00:00Now the start of meteorological fall is upon us even though technically astronomical fall
00:06sits about three weeks away. We as meteorologists like to do that because it makes the bookkeeping
00:11much much easier for us. Imagine having to write a spreadsheet equation that determines the start
00:17of fall based on not only the date but the time which varies year to year. This year fall will
00:23start astronomically speaking on the 22nd. That only happens sometimes but meteorological
00:29fall starts on the 1st at midnight of September every single year and that keeps a consistency
00:36which allows scientists like us, meteorologists, climatologists to keep easier records in terms
00:43of seasonal records. Imagine for instance say September 21st which is a common day to see
00:48the astronomical start of fall. Say you have a record that falls on that particular date. The
00:53following year that could be a summertime day. Even the day of on the 21st if the equinox doesn't
00:59occur till later in the afternoon or the evening then you have that issue where it could be fall,
01:04it could be spring and that varies from year to year. The 1st always makes it easy to know that
01:09this is the start seasonally in terms of record keeping and allows us to keep those books straight.
01:14Now for folks like me we kind of celebrate the start of fall in our own ways. As a meteorologist
01:19September 1st always a good red letter date for me in terms of fall but the start of pumpkin spice
01:24season always kind of gets me going gets me into that fall mood. So whatever you got to do to enjoy
01:29what hopefully will be cooler weather for everybody especially as we get later into September
01:33but fall is here meteorologically and in three weeks it'll be here astronomically. Reporting from
01:40Denver, Colorado for AccuWeather, I'm meteorologist Autumn Anthony.
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