AUTUMN ARRIVES EARLIER THIS YEAR: SEPTEMBER 22 INSTEAD OF 23

This year, autumn will not begin on September 23 as we learned in school, but on Monday, September 22. This is not a calendar error—the explanation lies in astronomy.

Autumn will officially start at exactly 8:19 PM.

A tropical year does not last exactly 365 days, but a few hours longer. For this reason, the start dates of the seasons shift slightly each year, and only leap years bring them back into balance.

Autumn begins on September 22 every three or four years, and it can occasionally start on September 24, although this is very rare. The next time it starts on that date will be in 300 years.