“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 than May and June? Summer is July and August. Really hot, right? Autumn is September and October. See the pumpkins? Smell those burning leaves? Next comes the season called Locking. November and December aren’t winter. They’re Locking. Next comes winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold! What comes next? Not spring. ‘Unlocking’ comes next. What else could cruel March and only slightly less cruel April be? March and April are not spring. They’re Unlocking.”
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.
”Winter was short, this year”. “Spring came early”. It does not make sense to tie these concepts to a calendar. Summer is when you dare to dip your toes in the ocean. In winter we have a meter of ice. I generally place vacation weeks in July and august, because the weather is nice and other people are on vacation as well.
The statement that the seasons are wrong, does not make sense. To tie these names to a calendar, does not make sense.
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 as-is.
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.
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.
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 a lag between the day length and the temperature, so it makes more sense to start the season on the solstice/equinox.
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.
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.
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.
Excellent link.
So the best solution is to take the authors observation and add the average seasonal lag to arrive at the „real“ observed spring, summer, fall and winter.
I've been thinking of this but I figured the start/end of seasons make a lot of sense if you think about the effect the length of days has on temperature. Essentially the length of days effects the rate of energy added by the system. For instance days are longest on June 21st but temperatures will generally keep increasing until August.
It's a bit like taking that sinusoid and integrating it resulting in a cosine shifted by a quarter of a phase.
Start of summer.. June 21st?
Is this statement true for US? Another thing to put in mind, besides Fahrenheit, yards, lbs.. at least time (besides 12 hour clock) seem to conform with the rest of the world...
In terms of temperature rather than length of daylight, the peak of summer depends on geography (and latitude in particular). In where I live (Hong Kong), July and August are the hottest months and so it makes sense to me that Summer begins in June.
> I've been freaking out about this for the better part of ten years, and originally wrote this in 2018. Only recently did I have it explained to me by an LLM that this is mostly a North American tradition ...
Did the author not read the Wikipedia page for seasons,[0] which explains all of this in great detail, for the last ten years? Even the simple Wikipedia page explains what the author apparently needed an LLM for.[1]
I think Sekki, made easy by https://smallseasons.guide/, addresses this adequately. I am surprised at how closely the Japanese dates mirror actual transitions in Ireland. It's rarely off by more than a day or two, if at all. I hardly think about seasons anymore.
The only thing with more power than curiosity and intelligence is the power of indignant ignorance.
If this had been submitted on April 1st, I might've let it slide, but this is just ridiculous. It's like saying, "I mean, it's just one big word salad of how do you define something?" It's really quite sad.
The ancient Hawaiians had two main seasons - winter and summer, marked by the rising of Pleiades in the East during the winter and the setting of the Pleiades in the West summer, which corresponds roughly to November and May. And lines roughly up with what the article proposes.
> Summer starting when the days grow short makes no sense.
Well, that's why there isn't just one summer. We have meteorological summer, astronomical summer, solar summer, etc. Solar summer already covers your intent.
I'm reminded of the comments every time unemployment rates are mentioned. Someone invariably chimes in with something like "the unemployment rate isn't valid because it fails to account for x", somehow not realizing that there isn't just one unemployment rate and that x is accounted for in the applicable rates.
“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 than May and June? Summer is July and August. Really hot, right? Autumn is September and October. See the pumpkins? Smell those burning leaves? Next comes the season called Locking. November and December aren’t winter. They’re Locking. Next comes winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold! What comes next? Not spring. ‘Unlocking’ comes next. What else could cruel March and only slightly less cruel April be? March and April are not spring. They’re Unlocking.”
—Kurt Vonnegut
It’s a shame that the months in English don’t really have descriptive names like in other languages.
Polish (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”
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.
”Winter was short, this year”. “Spring came early”. It does not make sense to tie these concepts to a calendar. Summer is when you dare to dip your toes in the ocean. In winter we have a meter of ice. I generally place vacation weeks in July and august, because the weather is nice and other people are on vacation as well.
The statement that the seasons are wrong, does not make sense. To tie these names to a calendar, does not make sense.
I'm with you.
Australia calls December "summer". If climate patterns changed and shifted our weather patterns by a month, we'd shift our season vernacular to match.
Seasons refer to the climate we experience. They're a human experience, not calendar slot.
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 as-is.
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.
I thought the article could have been interesting if it cross-referenced with temperature, sadly it was quite basic.
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
Similarly the people of Toronto recognise only two seasons, winter and construction.
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 a lag between the day length and the temperature, so it makes more sense to start the season on the solstice/equinox.
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.
What is he on about? Ah, american. Ok.
American discovers basic property of life which their culture purposely rejected in order to be quirky™
((cries in erratic sydney weather))
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
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_lag
Excellent link. So the best solution is to take the authors observation and add the average seasonal lag to arrive at the „real“ observed spring, summer, fall and winter.
I had never even heard the idea of seasons starting on the solstices or equinoxes before. What a bizarre way to look at the year.
I've been thinking of this but I figured the start/end of seasons make a lot of sense if you think about the effect the length of days has on temperature. Essentially the length of days effects the rate of energy added by the system. For instance days are longest on June 21st but temperatures will generally keep increasing until August.
It's a bit like taking that sinusoid and integrating it resulting in a cosine shifted by a quarter of a phase.
Some people live in a cabin and all they see is the thermometer. Some others live outside and they see nature
The traditional Chinese calendar already accounts for that, with Spring beginning in late February/early March. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_term.
Meteorological seasons make a bit more sense, and IME those are more commonly used anyway:
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/meteorological-versus-astrono...
Start of summer.. June 21st? Is this statement true for US? Another thing to put in mind, besides Fahrenheit, yards, lbs.. at least time (besides 12 hour clock) seem to conform with the rest of the world...
In terms of temperature rather than length of daylight, the peak of summer depends on geography (and latitude in particular). In where I live (Hong Kong), July and August are the hottest months and so it makes sense to me that Summer begins in June.
Better title: our labels for natural phenomena don’t make sense.
> I've been freaking out about this for the better part of ten years, and originally wrote this in 2018. Only recently did I have it explained to me by an LLM that this is mostly a North American tradition ...
Did the author not read the Wikipedia page for seasons,[0] which explains all of this in great detail, for the last ten years? Even the simple Wikipedia page explains what the author apparently needed an LLM for.[1]
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season#Four-season_reckoning
[1]: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season
I think Sekki, made easy by https://smallseasons.guide/, addresses this adequately. I am surprised at how closely the Japanese dates mirror actual transitions in Ireland. It's rarely off by more than a day or two, if at all. I hardly think about seasons anymore.
The only thing with more power than curiosity and intelligence is the power of indignant ignorance.
If this had been submitted on April 1st, I might've let it slide, but this is just ridiculous. It's like saying, "I mean, it's just one big word salad of how do you define something?" It's really quite sad.
The ancient Hawaiians had two main seasons - winter and summer, marked by the rising of Pleiades in the East during the winter and the setting of the Pleiades in the West summer, which corresponds roughly to November and May. And lines roughly up with what the article proposes.
We dont make it up. The spinning rock decided
I actually agree. Summer starting when the days grow short makes no sense. By that time half of summer has passed.
> Summer starting when the days grow short makes no sense.
Well, that's why there isn't just one summer. We have meteorological summer, astronomical summer, solar summer, etc. Solar summer already covers your intent.
I'm reminded of the comments every time unemployment rates are mentioned. Someone invariably chimes in with something like "the unemployment rate isn't valid because it fails to account for x", somehow not realizing that there isn't just one unemployment rate and that x is accounted for in the applicable rates.