For climate record-keeping purposes, the fall season consists of the months of September, October, and November. While this is true, the official first day of fall and the autumnal equinox will begin September 23rd.

There are only two times a year when the Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a “nearly” equal amount of daylight and darkness. This is referred to as the equinoxes, which occur on the first day of spring and the first day of fall. 

The autumnal equinox will begin at 1:50 a.m. central time on Saturday the 23rd. This means Fall will officially begin across the Tennessee Valley; even though meteorological fall began on September 1st. The autumnal equinox varies each year between September 22nd and 23rd.

First Day of Fall Stats for Huntsville:

As mentioned above, the official first day varies between the 22nd and 23rd of September. When looking at past observations for the 23rd specifically, the normal high and low for the day are 85 and 61 degrees respectively.

The warmest first day of fall on record occurred in 1931 when the high temperature reached 103 degrees and the coolest occurred in 2018 when the high was 73 degrees. The wettest was in 1975 when nearly 1.90 inches of rain fell.

The first day of fall will be seasonable and quiet. High temperatures across the Tennessee Valley are forecast to warm into the mid to upper 80s. With dry air still in place, many will enjoy partly sunny skies.

Losing Daylight

After the autumn equinox, we will start to lose daylight as the northern hemisphere tilts away from the sun. Through the month of October, our days will start to get shorter with less daylight.

Earth’s northern hemisphere will continue to tilt away from the sun day by day until the Winter Solstice. At this point, the northern hemisphere will experience its shortest day and longest night.

Until then, we will gradually start to lose daylight through the coming months. In October, the Tennessee Valley will lose close to 62 minutes of daylight from October 1 to October 31.

There is a significant difference between the sunrise and sunset on October 1 compared to October 31. The sunrise on the first is at 6:40 in the morning, while on the 31st the sunrise is at 7:05.

The Sunsets are almost half an hour apart. The sunset on the first will be at 6:30, while the sunset on the 31, will occur at 5:53.