Welcome to fall, y'all: Here's what you need to know about the autumnal equinox

HOUSTON – Early this morning we officially kicked off fall in Houston at 2:50 a.m. Technically, today is known as the autumnal equinox which officially serves as the meteorological transition from summer to fall. 

The equinox, which is Latin for "equal nights," is when the Earth's tilt is nearly parallel to the Sun.  This allows for both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere to receive nearly the same amount of solar energy today from the Sun. 

On the equinox, the Sun is directly overhead of the equator. What this means for us on the surface is that we see nearly equal daylight hours and nighttime hours. Both work out to around 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. 

From this point forward, we'll start losing daylight hours at a faster rate than before the equinox. While the start of fall can mean cooler days for parts of the U.S., for Texas, we'll be delaying the pumpkin spice latte weather for a few more weeks.