Countdown to Next Season
A live countdown to each of the four astronomical seasons — the next equinox or solstice — using commonly cited calendar dates.
The four astronomical seasons — marked by the two equinoxes and two solstices — aren't fixed to the same calendar date every year the way, say, New Year's Day is; the exact moment each one occurs shifts by roughly a day from year to year, a consequence of Earth's orbital period not lining up perfectly with the 365-day calendar year, which is also part of why leap years exist in the first place.
Because of that small yearly drift, any season countdown tool built on fixed dates is working from an approximation rather than the precise astronomical moment — which is a reasonable tradeoff for general reference, since the practical difference of a day either way rarely matters for the kinds of things people actually plan around seasonal changes, like gardening, travel, or simply anticipating a shift in weather.
This tool tracks all four seasonal markers simultaneously using commonly cited fixed calendar dates (March 20th, June 21st, September 22nd, and December 21st), showing a live day count to whichever is coming up next for each. Worth noting: the season names follow Northern Hemisphere convention, so "Summer Solstice" in June is actually the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice — the astronomical event dates themselves are identical worldwide, only the season names flip.
- Just open the page — all four countdowns update automatically.
The exact moment of each equinox/solstice shifts by about a day year to year due to the details of Earth's orbit — this tool uses the most commonly cited fixed calendar dates for simplicity.
The season *names* here follow the Northern Hemisphere convention (e.g. 'Summer Solstice' in June) — the actual astronomical event dates are the same worldwide, just with reversed season names in the Southern Hemisphere.