The first week of spring in Czechia to bring warm weather and showers

Spring in Czechia begins with temperatures reaching almost 20 degrees Celsius this week, but it will be mostly cloudy with almost daily rain.

At the end of the week, it will cool down and it may even snow in the mountains. Even at night, however, the temperatures probably won't drop below zero, according to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ).

Temperatures may reach 16 or 17 degrees Celsius during most of the week’s workdays and on Wednesday could even reach between 15 and 19 degrees. Saturday will see cooling with temperatures dropping to 11 to 15 degrees during the day. On Sunday and at the beginning of next week, temperatures can drop to eight to 12 degrees.

This week, night temperatures probably won’t drop below 2 degrees Celsius above zero. On the nights of Thursday and Friday, it can be up to 10 degrees.

Although daytime temperatures will approach the 20s, skies will remain overcast for most of the week. Meteorologists also expect rain or showers every day this week. On the weekend there may even be mixed or snow showers at higher elevations in the country.

Astronomical spring begins today with the vernal equinox at 10:24 p.m. This means the sun will be exactly above the Earth's equator, and night and day will be approximately the same length. Days will continue to get longer until the June summer solstice, when they begin to shorten. Days will remain longer than nights until the fall equinox of Sept. 23.

The vernal equinox usually falls on March 20. It used to fall often on March 21, but the last time in the 21st century was in 2011 and it won't happen again until 2102. Rarely, astronomical spring can fall on March 19, but the last time this happened was in 1796. It will happen again in 2048.

Unlike the astronomical spring, the meteorological spring has a fixed beginning and end. It starts on March 1 and ends on the last day of May every year. A third type is ecological spring, when average daily temperatures rise above 5 degrees Celsius.

People should also remember to set their clocks forward an hour on the night of March 25–26 at 2 a.m. While the European Union has been discussing the end of setting clocks forward and back, it has not yet reached an agreement.