Next fall is the third in the midst of the ongoing war on Gaza.

Arab Weather - In less than 10 days, autumn will begin in the northern hemisphere, with gradual changes occurring in weather patterns worldwide. Meanwhile, the raging war in the Gaza Strip continues, leaving large numbers of martyrs and wounded, in addition to massive material losses. The residents of the Strip are welcoming the third autumn of this war, amidst still extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.

Gazans welcome the third autumn in the shadow of war!

The autumnal equinox falls on September 22nd, an astronomical event that occurs when the sun is directly overhead at the equator, making day and night of approximately equal length. It signals the beginning of autumn. For our people in the Gaza Strip, the coming autumn brings a different dimension, as people face additional challenges amid the ongoing conflict.

More than 700 days of war have passed, with seasons and events changing, but the war is still ongoing: bombing, killing, and massacres, with a siege and cuts to electricity, water, and food. Now autumn is coming, and the situation hasn't changed; it's actually worsened.

Why does moderation happen?

The Earth revolves around the sun while its axis is tilted about 23.5 degrees from the horizon. The northern hemisphere tilts toward the sun during the summer, receiving more solar radiation, and away from the sun during the winter, receiving less solar radiation. The opposite occurs in the southern hemisphere.

But twice a year (in March and September) the Earth's tilt is aligned with its orbit around the Sun, so that there is no tilt to the Earth, and then the Sun is directly over the equator, and both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres receive the same amount of sunlight and the same hours of daylight and night.

The line separating the areas that experience night and the areas that experience day, called the "grey line," parallels the Earth's axis and passes through the North and South Poles.

What happens on the autumnal equinox?

On the autumnal equinox in all countries of the world, the sun rises in the true east, making a 90-degree angle with the horizon, and sets in the true west, at a 270-degree angle with the horizon, where the sun is perpendicular (in its apparent motion) to the equator.

After the autumnal equinox, the sun continues its apparent journey across the horizon towards the south in the Northern Hemisphere, until it reaches its farthest south on the winter solstice.

After the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, night begins to gain increasing minutes of daylight each day for three months, until the winter solstice in December, which marks the longest night and shortest day of the entire year in the Northern Hemisphere. The opposite occurs in the Southern Hemisphere.