The Universe of Discourse

A descriptive theory of seasons in the Mid-Atlantic

[ I started thinking about this about twenty years ago, and then writing it down in 2019, but it seems to be obsolete. I am publishing it anyway. ]

The canonical division of the year into seasons in the northern temperate zone goes something like this:

• Spring: March 21 – June 21
• Summer: June 21 – September 21
• Autumn: September 21 – December 21
• Winter: December 21 – March 21

Living in the mid-Atlantic region of the northeast U.S., I have never been happy with this. It is just not a good description of the climate.

I begin by observing that the year is not equally partitioned between the four seasons. The summer and winter are longer, and spring and autumn are brief and happy interludes in between.

I have no problem with spring beginning in the middle of March. I think that is just right. March famously comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. The beginning of March is crappy, like February, and frequently has snowstorms and freezes. By the end of March, spring is usually skipping along, with singing birds and not just the early flowers (snowdrops, crocuses, daffodil) but many of the later ones also.

By the middle of May the spring flowers are over and the weather is getting warm, often uncomfortably so. Summer continues through the beginning of September, which is still good for swimming and lightweight clothes. In late September it finally gives way to autumn.

Autumn is jacket weather but not overcoat weather. Its last gasp is in the middle of November. By this time all the leaves have changed, and the ones that are going to fall off the trees have done so. The cool autumn mist has become a chilly winter mist. The cold winter rains begin at the end of November.

So my first cut would look something like this:

Note that this puts Thanksgiving where it belongs at the boundary between autumn (harvest season) and winter (did we harvest enough to survive?). Also, it puts the winter solstice (December 21) about one quarter of the way through the winter. This is correct. By the solstice the days have gotten short, and after that the cold starts to kick in. (“As the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen”.) The conventional division takes the solstice as the beginning of winter, which I just find perplexing. December 1 is not the very coldest part of winter, but it certainly isn't autumn.

There is something to be said for it though. I think I can distinguish several subseasons — ten in fact:

Dominus Seasonal Calendar

Midwinter, beginning around the solstice, is when the really crappy weather arrives, day after day of bitter cold. In contrast, early and late winter are typically much milder. By late February the snow is usually starting to melt. (March, of course, is always unpredictable, and usually has one nasty practical joke hiding up its sleeve. Often, March is pleasant and springy in the second week, and then mocks you by turning back into January for the third week. This takes people by surprise almost every year and I wonder why they never seem to catch on.)

Similarly, the really hot weather is mostly confined to midsummer. Early and late summer may be warm but you do not get blazing sun and you have to fry your eggs indoors, not on the pavement.

Why the seasons seem to turn in the middle of each month, and not at the beginning, I can't say. Someone messed up, but who? Probably the Romans. I hear that the Persians and the Baha’i start their year on the vernal equinox. Smart!

Weather in other places is very different, even in the temperate zones. For example, in southern California they don't have any of the traditional seasons. They have a period of cooler damp weather in the winter months, and then instead of summer they have a period of gloomy haze from June through August.

However

I may have waited too long to publish this article, as climate change seems to have rendered it obsolete. In recent years, we have barely had midwinter, and instead of the usual two to three annual snows we have zero. Midsummer has grown from two to four months, and summer now lasts into October.

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