Overview
- The equinox will occur at 18:06 Central Mexico time on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, which corresponds to about 00:05–00:06 Coordinated Universal Time on September 23 according to INAOE, the U.S. Naval Observatory and Time and Date.
- Local U.S. clocks record the event on Tuesday the 22nd with Time and Date placing it at roughly 17:05 Pacific in California, 20:05 Eastern in much of Florida (19:05 in parts on Central time), 19:05 Central in most of Texas, and about 18:05 in far‑west Texas (El Paso).
- Mexican and international observatories corroborated the timing but reported a one‑minute UTC difference, with INAOE listing 00:06 UTC and the U.S. Naval Observatory listing 00:05 UTC, showing strong agreement on the instant of the event.
- The equinox happens when the Sun crosses the celestial equator as Earth orbits with a roughly 23.5° axial tilt, and it signals the start of astronomical autumn when nights will gradually lengthen until the December solstice.
- The astronomical start of autumn is a precise orbital marker and not a weather forecast, so temperatures and local conditions will vary regionally and may lag the equinox while people notice earlier sunsets and shorter daylight hours.