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Dina Freedman ReportingThe official start of Fall is today. KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman has been scoping out the fall colors and has some info on the new season.
It's getting nice and cool at night, the leaves are changing, and at 4:23 mountain time today was the official start of fall.
Fall is here in Utah and it looks great so far, even with below normal rainfall totals in the past few weeks. While good amounts of rainfall do help with the vibrance of colors, it's not the temperatures that actually change the colors of the leaves, it's the length of day.
Because of the earth's rotation and where we are in our orbit around the sun, it's the autumnal equinox, there's actually equal lengths of day and night.
From here on out we'll have shorter days and longer nights. Gradually our temperatures will get cooler, and while our average first frost is on October 15th in Salt Lake, the record first night of freezing was September 13th 1928.
Today the sun will set directly west and has already risen directly east.
It's also time to party on the south pole where today, they will see the sun for the first time in six months so their temperature will move from about -90 degrees to -13 in the next couple of months!
