In North America the first day of fall begins with the autumn equinox. This year the autumn equinox occurs today at 11:09 p.m. Eastern Time. (UTC 3:09 a.m. 9/23/10) So technically, yes, the first moments of fall occur today. The first 51 minutes. (Even being on the West Coast you will only experience less than four hours of fall before the new day; all of which will be dark.) But really, today is the last day of summer, especially if you're on Eastern Time. When most people on the East Coast go to bed tonight, they likely will have spent all of their waking hours in summer.
The article I linked to above was posted at 10:22 a.m. ET, and is somewhat comical when you think about what they wrote. I quote: "Take a look at some of these fall photos we've collected from around the world." Oh really? You've already managed to collect fall photos from around the world when it's not even fall yet?!? (I know they are from the past, but the tone of the article seems to be talking in the present.) Wow. I knew that Flux Capacitor wasn't just a movie prop!
Though technically right, it's confusing and arguably misleading to call today the "first day of fall", when in fact, only 51 minutes of today occur in the fall. No one in North America will experience a full day (or even a majority day) of fall until September 23rd**.
I'm not completely serious when I make fun of the article I linked to, and there's probably some holes in my argument, but I don't care. It doesn't make sense to call today the first day of fall. If you want to say fall starts today, that makes much more sense. Anyways, with that being said, enjoy your last few hours of summer!
**Side note: You would think that the seasons would be proper nouns and capitalized (at least I do), but as far as I can tell, they are classified as common nouns. Considering when you say, "I went to the lake last summer.", you are talking about a specific time of the year, it seems like it should be Summer and not summer. Oh well, I never liked English class anyways .
