Start of Spring 2024 comes with frigid Equinox temperatures, but vibrant cherry blossoms

For some folks, it's the most eagerly awaited day of the year.

Tuesday is the first day of spring, although the exact moment of the spring equinox isn't until the evening. The equinox – which marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere – will take place Tuesday at precisely 11:06 p.m. EDT.

And while it may look like spring in many areas, including Washington, D.C. and its famed cherry trees, a blast of wintry cold in the eastern and southern U.S. is putting a damper on how it feels out there.

What is the spring equinox?

As the Earth travels around the sun, it does so at an angle. For most of the year, the Earth’s axis is tilted either toward or away from the sun.

Tuesday will be one of two days out of the year – the other being the day of the autumnal equinox in September – when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in roughly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness almost everywhere on Earth.

So it's an "equal night," which is where the word equinox originated: the two Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night), according to the National Weather Service. Each day for the next three months, the sun will get higher in the sky – and the daily amount of daylight longer – until the summer solstice in June.

More: 2024 spring equinox: A visual guide to the changing of the seasons

It's also one of only two days each year when almost every spot on Earth – except the poles – experiences a sunrise at due east and a sunset at due west.

Meteorologists, who define the seasons differently, said spring began March 1.

For the folks down under in the Southern Hemisphere, it's the autumnal equinox this Tuesday, marking the first day of autumn.

'Peak bloom' reached in DC

One of the surest signs of spring in the nation's capital is the arrival of the blooms on the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin. And Sunday, the National Park Service said that peak bloom had arrived.

"PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! Did we say PEAK BLOOM?!" the NPS exclaimed on X. "The blossoms are opening & putting on a splendid spring spectacle."

This is tied for the second-earliest peak bloom on record, the Capital Weather Gang reported Sunday, which added that only the March 15, 1990, bloom came sooner in observations that date back to 1921.

Winter's last gasp?

After weeks of mild to warm weather, what could be one of the final gasps of the anemic winter of 2023-24 spread over much of the eastern half of the U.S. Monday. Temperatures were forecast to dip below freezing across much of the Deep South Tuesday morning, the weather service said, prompting a freeze warning for at least 24 million people from Texas to North Carolina.

"The growing season has begun, and freeze will cause significant damage to unprotected sensitive vegetation," the weather service in Jackson, Mississippi, said.

In Atlanta, the weather service warned that "frost and freeze conditions will kill crops, other sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing."

To the North, temperatures will dip into the single digits over the Upper Midwest and the teens over the northern tier of the Northeast, AccuWeather said.

As for DC's cherry trees, "even though temperatures will dip close to freezing on Tuesday morning, it is unlikely to get cold enough long enough to adversely affect the blossoms," AccuWeather meteorologist Ryan Adamson said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Spring Equinox 2024 kicks off season with cold temps and bright blooms