It’s the first full day of spring! The vernal equinox, or spring equinox, which means “of spring” or “equal night” in Latin, occurred at 4:02 a.m. (PST) on March 20. Day and night are approximately equal in length on this day, as the sun shines directly over the equator. In the morning, sunrise was due east and in the evening, sunset was due west. Ah, spring… increasing daylight, warming temperatures, flowers, bunnies and chocolate eggs – the Earth awakens after a long winter’s nap. Cases of spring fever begin to pop up simultaneously. Something to be concerned about?

“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”~  Mark Twain

Spring is likely the most awaited season of all. Not only does “Mother Nature” respond to and literature reflect on the season’s arrival – humans actually exhibit psychological and physiological changes. The word “fever” is not a positive one. But, thank goodness, spring fever does not refer to any kind of medical problem or illness. In fact, quite the contrary.

With more hours of sunlight, hormonal changes occur. These create a mood elevating effect that cause giddiness, excess energy and a general feeling of well being. Anthropologists suggest early people needed this boost for  hunting and gathering food after the long winter.

And let’s not forget the “new life” arriving during the spring time – babies! Scientific definition: procreation; romantic definition: love.

So is “spring fever” real? Depends how you define “real.” Is Santa Claus real, or the Easter Bunny? It is all a matter of opinion or maybe choice …

The days of foggy and cooler temperatures will soon be replaced by windy and warmer ones. As the CV Weekly arrives, the weather conditions will include clearing skies and daytime highs around 70 degrees. And then comes the wind… breezy at first, but possibly reaching advisory levels Thursday night. On Friday, a repeat of the same as the NWS states: “…a pretty strong wind event, coming from the northeast, passing through and continuing on through the Santa Monica Mountains.”

During this time, nighttime lows will dip into the 40s. By the weekend and into next week, we can expect pretty much the same except for a few degrees warm-up and calming winds. You could say our weather is the perfect definition of spring.    Enjoy while the mid-west still lies buried in snow and Washington D.C. awaits its cherry trees’ first bloom.

  Sue Kilpatrick