Friday, March 21, 2008

Signs of Spring

In my Sunday post on March 16, I said, "Hello," to spring. However, spring in this part of the world did not actually arrive until Thursday, March 20 at 5:48 UT. Furthermore, in our corner of the Earth, we have four seasons with vast differences in temperature and weather patterns. Spring here in Indiana is marked by rain, warming temperatures, and blossoming flowers and trees.

One phenomenon that I witness every spring and every fall as I drive to work at about 7:00 AM is the sun rising directly in the east right down the road in front of me. Although the sun shining in one's eyes is inconvenient, I find this astronomical occurrence fascinating. Our route to work is mostly down 73rd Avenue, a east-west bearing street that has been a pathway for mankind for centuries. In prehistoric times, the street was the Great Sauk Trail used by native Americans. In 1912, the street became part of the first road across America called the Lincoln Highway or US 30. This ancient path runs in a straight east-west direction, perhaps due to historic travelers following the sunrise to the east or the sunset to the west.




Yesterday, on the first day of spring as I was squinting at the gorgeous sunrise, I planned to photograph the sun rising at the east end of 73rd Avenue this morning and then to blog about this grand event of the sun rising due east on the Vernal Equinox. However, this is what our spring world looked like on the second day of spring in 2008.



I guess that the spring rains and flowers will come later.

5 comments:

daddy d said...

You are 100% right about the East/West travel route. The co-linearity of 73 rd or old 30 and the Sun is too great not to have been correct history.

Margaret said...

Well, SNOW? We got some mixed rain/snow showers this morning and hail. Spring is so unpredictable, isn't it?

ChrisB said...

Spring in my bit of the UK has been heavy rain, a hale storm yesterday afternoon and overnight and today gale force winds. I have just been out clearing up my rubbish( garbage), that had blown all over the yard, from upturned bin!

willowtree said...

Brrrr. Nice pics though.

I find it interesting that you have a 'numbered' street running east-west, I thought they usually went north-south, and the 'name' streets went east-west.

Unknown said...

Up here in Wisconsin I'm always amazed at how far south the sun sets. It moves it happy way back up a little in the summer.

We were supposed to get snow but only had some flurries. :)

Happy Easter!