Autumnal equinox 2020
When is the Autumnal equinox 2020?
The Autumnal equinox 2020 is on
Tuesday, September 22, 2020 (in 286 days).
Calendar for 2020
The Autumnal equinox 2019 has already passed: it was on Monday, September 23, 2019 (78 days ago).
Calendar for 2019
What is the Autumnal equinox?

The autumnal equinox marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere
In the Northern Hemisphere, the moment in time when the Sun stands directly above the equator while crossing from the north to the south is called autumnal equinox (also known as
fall equinox,
September equinox or southward equinox). It is the moment
summer ends and
autumn (
fall) begins in the Northern Hemisphere (where nearly 90% of the world's population live). For the Southern Hemisphere, it is the
vernal equinox (also called
spring equinox) as it is the moment
winter ends and
spring begins.
In the Northern Hemisphere the autumnal equinox occurs every year on September 21 to 23. Occasionally it can also fall on September 21 or 24. The dates given on this page are based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which for practical purposes is equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). While the autumnal equinox occurs at the same moment in time all over the world, the date and local time differ from place to place depending on the year and a location's time zone. For locations that are ahead of UTC (further east) it may fall on the day after, and for locations that are behind UTC (further west) it may fall on the day before. To find out the exact date and time of the autumnal equinox 2020 in your area use this
seasons calculator.
The autumnal equinox is one of four days (two equinoxes and two solstices) throughout the year that mark the beginning of a new season. The other days are the vernal equinox (beginning of spring), the
summer solstice (beginning of summer) and the
winter solstice (beginning of winter).
The word "equinox" is derived from Latin and means "equal night". On the day of an equinox, day and night are of approximately equal length all over the world, as the Earth's rotational axis is neither tilted away from nor towards the Sun. At all other times the length of day and night will be different.
The exact moment of the autumnal equinox through the centuries

Graph demonstrating the movement (caused by leap shifting) of the exact moment of the autumnal equinox between 1900 and 2520. X axis (bottom, horizontal): Calendar years, Y axis (left, vertical): day in September (21 to 23).
In a non-leap year, the moment of the autumnal equinox is about 5 hours 49 minutes
after that moment in the previous year (in UTC), and in a
leap year it is about 18 hours 11 minutes
before that moment in the previous year, as can be seen in this graph. In this way the time of the autumnal equinox constantly shifts back and forth so it always stays around September 21 to 23. This four year cycle is clearly visible in the graph.
To adjust for the gradual movement backwards on the calendar (as visible for the period 1900 to 2099), in years divisible by 100 (1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 on the graph), which should be leap years as they are divisible by 4, the leap day is omitted (except when they are divisible by 400, eg. 2000 and 2400) and the moment of the autumnal equinox moves forward in time compared to the same moment in the year before.
For more information see
September equinox on Wikipedia.
When is the Autumnal equinox 2021?
The Autumnal equinox 2021 is on
Wednesday, September 22, 2021 (in 651 days).
Calendar for 2021
Dates for the Autumnal equinox from 2015 to 2025
The next occurrence of the Autumnal equinox is marked in
red.
When is ...? |
Date |
Day of the week |
Days away |
Autumnal equinox 2015 |
September 23, 2015 |
Wednesday |
1539 days ago |
Autumnal equinox 2016 |
September 22, 2016 |
Thursday |
1174 days ago |
Autumnal equinox 2017 |
September 22, 2017 |
Friday |
809 days ago |
Autumnal equinox 2018 |
September 23, 2018 |
Sunday |
443 days ago |
Autumnal equinox 2019 |
September 23, 2019 |
Monday |
78 days ago |
Autumnal equinox 2020 |
September 22, 2020 |
Tuesday |
in 286 days |
Autumnal equinox 2021 |
September 22, 2021 |
Wednesday |
in 651 days |
Autumnal equinox 2022 |
September 23, 2022 |
Friday |
in 1017 days |
Autumnal equinox 2023 |
September 23, 2023 |
Saturday |
in 1382 days |
Autumnal equinox 2024 |
September 22, 2024 |
Sunday |
in 1747 days |
Autumnal equinox 2025 |
September 22, 2025 |
Monday |
in 2112 days |
Data provided 'as is' without warranty |
 Calendar templates 2020 for Word, Excel & PDF |
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A selection of calendar templates for 2020 in landscape and portrait orientation and with US federal holidays, suitable for a variety of applications.
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