When I was in elementary school, we were taught that the first day of Spring was March 21. But that seems to no longer be true. For an explanation of why Spring begins in North America on March 20, rather than March 21, see this interesting discussion in the Farmers' Almanac.
It turns out that Spring actually began on March 20, at least this year. These photos were taken on March 21, when, according to TimeandDate.com, there were 12 hours 15 minutes of sunlight in Seattle, WA, and the sun's azimuth at sunset was already a couple of degrees north of due west. I always thought that day and night were equal in length on the first days of spring and fall, but Farmers' Almanac tells us that's not the case.
Putting the astronomical details to one side, the evening of March 21 was absolutely beautiful. Just before sunset, we had the fireboat Leschi putting on a spectacular water display off Pier 66 . . .
. . . as a Washington State Ferry departed Pier 52 for Eagle Harbor.
According to TimeandDate.com, the sun's azimuth at sunset was 272 degrees, just south (from our vantage point on Elliott Bay) of The Brothers, the 6,800-ft twin peaks in the Olympic Range.
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