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The Seasons Are Wrong

kentwalters.com

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Re: The Seasons Are Wrong

#31

Post by cameldrv »

anactofgod wrote: post #12

Do you want to define the seasons by temperature? Or by lengthening of the day? Because, to me, seasons are tied to weather in general, but temperature specifically. And temperature seems to correlates to length of day, but trails it by about a month. Which makes sense, since it takes time to heat/cool the enormous thermal mass. So, if weather is how you track the changing of the seasons, it’s close enough to correct…

Yeah there are "climatological seasons." The Earth heats up over time, as you say, so the longest day of the year is not generally the hottest day. Climatological summer is June/July/August. The Romans and many other northern hemisphere cultures marked summer as starting before the solstice. I'm not sure when we got the idea that Summer was supposed to start on the solstice.

Re: The Seasons Are Wrong

#32

Post by [deleted] »

adammarples wrote: post #26
theodric wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Ireland, in February, the days warm up often into the double digits, galanthus are flowering, grass begins to take on its spring green, and I am to believe that this is still the depths of winter. No, rejected. Dismissing this article as "American" is misguided at best.

No, late february is not the depths of winter, it's the very end of winter

[deleted]

Re: The Seasons Are Wrong

#33

Post by gherkinnn »

Most people are exceptionally good at differentiating between scientific (meteorological, astronomical) seasons and when it is time to spend months eating ice cream in shorts.

I'd be far more interested in learning how seasons shift due to climate change, or alternative systems based on extreme climates or other circumstances.

A quick search reveals that the Sami people appear to have 8 seasons [0], in old-timey war seasons can be divided in to fighting season and reconstitution season, aboriginal Australians had systems of 5-8 seasons [1], and the Canaries have only one season.

0 - https://kirunalapland.se/en/our-eight-seasons/

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australian_seasons

Re: The Seasons Are Wrong

#36

Post by kpmcc »

bloak wrote: post #29

Round here (GB) the standard, as reflected in decorative calendars and the like, seems to be: Spring: Mar, Apr, May Summer: Jun, Jul, Aug Autumn: Sep, Oct, Nov Winter: Dec, Jan, Feb Works for me.

Moving from the US to the UK, one of the first things I noticed was that the colloquial understanding of the seasons mapped much more cleanly onto what actually happens with the weather here. Growing up in the midwest of the US the seasons all felt off in the same way the author describes.

Re: The Seasons Are Wrong

#37

Post by chao- »

I've lived in North America most of my life, at various latitudes and in various climates. Maybe half of the continent gets four, equal length, distinct seasons? That's enough to culturally dominate perceptions, but I have never known anyone to take the calendar-based equinox/solstice "start of {{season}}" as anything more than a conversational novelty. Even correcting adjusting the start/end dates is still inadequate when the idea of four distinct, equal seasons isn't the reality for half of the continent.

For example, when I lived in Western New York, there were four seasons for sure, but Winter was five months long, and I won't hear otherwise. Now I'm on the Gulf Coast and we don't have four seasons in the conventional sense. There are definitely five, and they're not equal length. Across six months, there is Summer Part One, The Season of August, and Summer Part Two. There is no "Winter", but there is a six-to-eight-week "cold front season" where the temperature may snap cold for 2-3 days, then gradually warms up to be mild over the next 5-7 days, and eventually snaps cold again. Repeat four or five times and this short season is over.

Plus, depending on the ENSO cycle we can have a true, mid-year "rainy season" similar to Japan, with near-daily short downpours at the same time each day (shifting slightly later in the day across the season). In the other parts of the cycle, we won't.

Re: The Seasons Are Wrong

#38

Post by politelemon »

gherkinnn wrote: post #33

Most people are exceptionally good at differentiating between scientific (meteorological, astronomical) seasons and when it is time to spend months eating ice cream in shorts. I'd be far more interested in learning how seasons shift due to climate change, or alternative systems based on extreme climates or other circumstances. A quick search reveals that the Sami people appear to have 8 seasons [0], in old-timey war…

Similarly the people of Toronto recognise only two seasons, winter and construction.

Re: The Seasons Are Wrong

#39

Post by keiferski »

oidar wrote: post #20

“One sort of optional thing you might do is realize that there are six seasons instead of four. The poetry of four seasons is all wrong for this part of the planet, and this may explain why we are depressed so much of the time. I mean, spring doesn’t feel like spring a lot of the time, and November is all wrong for autumn, and so on. Here is the truth about the seasons: Spring is May and June. What could be springier…

It’s a shame that the months in English don’t really have descriptive names like in other languages.

Polish (and other Slavic languages) for example, has some interesting ones:

- February (Luty) comes from “bleak, harsh, bitter”

- April (Kwiecień) is “month of flowers”

- August (Sierpień) is “month of the sickle,” as in the harvest time

- November (Listopad) is “month of leaves falling”

Re: The Seasons Are Wrong

#40

Post by DiscourseFan »

nickff wrote: post #7
dlcarrier wrote: post #5

I've never thought starting seasons on the solstice/equinox made any sense, but I live in a Mediterranean climate, where winter is the two months that are chilly with continuous rain and fog, and summer is the two months where it never cools off and there's not a single cloud in the sky. These are centered around their respective equinoxes. (equinoxia? equinoctes?) In a continental climate, with real weather, there's…

I have been thinking about this issue for a similar length of time as the article author, but for the reasons you describe think the seasons should be slightly offset from the solstices (as opposed to centered on them). My current thinking is that summer should run from one month before the summer solstice to two months after, and so forth.

No its not quite right still, I think for the US it still makes the most sense to have the start of the summer be the longest day, because basically the earth has been heating up to that point and that’s when the energy input begins to wane. Think about it like a steak: when you take it off the grill, its still heating up a bit before it starts to cool down.
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