Adios summer, it's been real: real hot, real dry, and real on fire (literally).

Autumn officially arrives Wednesday at 3:21 p.m. EDT, and we're ready. While we should have been winding down into milder temps this time of year, the weather has done anything but. However, the weather is starting to cool off a little, just in time for the first day of fall!

The Autumnal Equinox is what determines when the season starts. It is technically the precise moment each September, between the 21st and 23rd, the sun appears directly above the equator. Of course, for those south of the equator, this event marks the beginning of spring. So, summer chasers can just head south to catch the rays.

Interestingly, the equinox also marks the day that is as close to 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of night as the world gets.

Another fun fact, on the equinox, the sun rises due east and sets in due west for most of the world, except the North and South Poles. In addition, many areas around the world celebrate the equinox with feasts and festivals.

So, while we can have 80-degree days in October, it’s time to slowly start putting away the shorts and sandals. Frankly, that’s fine with me since old-school, super-shorty gym shorts and "mandals" with socks are the standard summer uniform of the older gentlemen in my apartment complex. Instead, all the guys can start the yearly transformation to lumbersexuals, and all the ladies can start piling on the five million layers we wear for a chilly autumn day.

Happy fall!