The first day of spring in 2026 is Friday, March 20, marked by the spring (vernal) equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

Quick Scoop: What’s the “first day of spring”?

  • Astronomically, spring starts at the spring equinox , when the sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night are nearly equal in length.
  • In 2026, that equinox happens on March 20 at 14:46 UTC (10:46 a.m. EDT), which is why that date is taken as the first day of spring.
  • Some weather agencies also talk about “meteorological spring,” which is simply defined as starting on March 1 for record-keeping and climate statistics.

So if someone asks “what’s the first day of spring?” the precise, official answer for 2026 is March 20 , but you may hear people casually treat March 1 as the start of the spring season in everyday weather talk.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.