With football season already underway and leaves beginning to change colors, memories of weekends spent on the beach are fading into the realization that autumn has arrived—and officially at 2:29 p.m. today.

“Autumn, which usually arrives on Sept. 23, is arriving a day earlier this year because of the leap year,” said NIU meteorologist and geography professor Allen Staver. This is the earliest autumn has arrived in 91 years, he said.

Today, the sun rose due east and will set due west except at the north and south poles. This means the daylight length is identical, about 12 hours and eight minutes, all over the earth. After today, the Northern Hemisphere will begin to lose a few minutes of daylight each day, while the Southern Hemisphere, where it is now spring, will gain a few.

While Staver said this autumn should remain warmer and drier than usual, Forecaster Joe Librizzi of the National Weather Service said DeKalb area residents should expect near normal temperatures, between 50 and 70 degrees, with above normal precipitation.

The added precipitation Librizzi said he expects will not help make up for the summer’s drought. “Although this autumn should have more precipitation than normal, it won’t be enough to make the farmers happy,” said Librizzi.

Staver said, “The trees are going to color earlier this year, not be as bright, and not last as long.”

Although Librizzi would not make any predictions about how the winter weather will be, he said winters that follow hot and dry summers are usually relatively mild.