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Meteorological seasons I think divide the year into 4 quarters-- the hottest 3 months are the summer and the coldest 3 months are the winter.
Spring is the 3 months between the winter and summer, and autumn is the 3 months between the summer and winter.
but do temperatures have something to do with it or not? Do they have to be 3 months no matter what? Cause there are 4 seasons climates when autumn is very short and summer is very long (like in BA). I cant think march as autumn not even for a second cause is hot as hell, hot as dic, jan and feb, and overall very uncomfortable like all summer is here.
Meanwhile, autumn here is wonderful: april and may, months with comfortable weather, nothing like march.
In Sweden, winter is defined by, I think, 7 consecutive days with average temperatures below freezing.. I think it may be less days but it's definitely something similar.. so in some winters, winter in say Stockholm doesn't arrive until January!!! (these are in very mild winters though)
That's interesting, I'm familiar with the use of astronomical and meteorological definitions, but I didn't know that some places actually officially defined any of the four seasons by meeting individual temperature thresholds or events (like, once it passes X days with Y temperature). I guess I'm used to people saying things like "winter's late/early this year", but that always seems to be in day-to-day informal conversation to me rather than anything formal.
Though I'm used to the idea that winter, spring, summer, fall are divisions of the year that are relatively equal in length and fixed in definition, Sweden's definition does seem to me like an exotic way to view things that I haven't though about before. (It's reminding me a bit like other kinds of "seasons" that are called that but vary in length from year to year eg. "frost-free season, maybe wet/dry season in places that have that.)
Last edited by Stumbler.; 02-15-2012 at 01:40 PM..
but do temperatures have something to do with it or not? Do they have to be 3 months no matter what? Cause there are 4 seasons climates when autumn is very short and summer is very long (like in BA). I cant think march as autumn not even for a second cause is hot as hell, hot as dic, jan and feb, and overall very uncomfortable like all summer is here.
Meanwhile, autumn here is wonderful: april and may, months with comfortable weather, nothing like march.
So, here summer haves 4 months and autumn, 2.
As far as I know I've always heard meteorological seasons as using the equal division (3 months) method, but I've heard it in mostly North America so maybe it's more suitable as definition for places that match a more symmetric, 4-seasons pattern (for example, meteorological definitions won't work for places like the tropics or with little variation or with an unbalanced temperature curve over the year).
I've always divided the 4 seasons for places by 25%. For example, winter is the coldest 25% of the year while summer is the warmest 25%, fall and spring are the time in between.
For example, let's say that there is a climate that the coldest time of the year has an average temperature of 18 F and the warmest time of the year has an average of 70 F. Winter would be anytime the average temperature for the day is < 31 F, and Summer would be anytime the average is > 57 F. And fall and spring would be anytime in between.
I'm happy with March 1 - May 31 being the boundaries of spring here but when I hear people referring to 'winter' in places like Miami or Brisbane the idea of a language having words for four distinct seasons with defined start/end dates is very biased towards mid- and higher latitude climates - I'm sure if the English language and the science of meteorology had developed in the tropics and spread to the more temperate regions then the names and concepts of seasons would be completely different and wouldn't fit well with the climate somewhere like England. I'd be interested to know what words a language like Swahili has to describe the seasons in a climate like those known by its speakers.
I think in the equatorial parts of Latin America winter "invierno" is used to refer to the wet season, while summer is for the dry season. I doubt they'd use the terms spring or autumn much.
I remember reading a John Steinbeck story (in California) mentioning plants and crops coming back to life after the early winter rain.
I think in the equatorial parts of Latin America winter "invierno" is used to refer to the wet season, while summer is for the dry season. I doubt they'd use the terms spring or autumn much.
I remember reading a John Steinbeck story (in California) mentioning plants and crops coming back to life after the early winter rain.
Regarding the Latin American seasons, I wonder if this has any connection the way the Spanish or Portuguese back in the Old World, familiar with the Mediterranean climate conception of dry summer, wet winter, re-applied their conception of season names in the New World.
Of the four US states I've lived in (Texas, North Carolina, Florida, and Alaska), none of them have had four equal, distinct seasons. Many people wouldn't think any of them had four seasons at all, though I think Southcentral Alaska comes closest, really.
The winters here eat up over a month of both spring and fall, and the summers are generally cool, but the seasons are distinct. Precipitation seems to vary much more than temperature on a yearly basis, at least in this area. In North Texas spring and summer are long and dependable, and fall and winter are highly variable in temperature and length. In central North Carolina, summer was dependable, but fall transitioned to spring without a definite winter. In central Florida, the only seasons are hot and wet and warm/cool and dry.
I think in the equatorial parts of Latin America winter "invierno" is used to refer to the wet season, while summer is for the dry season. I doubt they'd use the terms spring or autumn much.
I remember reading a John Steinbeck story (in California) mentioning plants and crops coming back to life after the early winter rain.
It is, but again this is in a language not native to that climate. I don't know for sure but I'd imagine the words for summer and winter in the native languages of the area translate more closely to 'dry' and 'wet' than anything with hot/cold connotations. One example I know of a language having a word describing the characteristics of a time of year in their part of the world is the Finnish word 'kaamos' meaning 'darkness' and which is loosely used to describe the dark part of late autumn and early winter when there is darkness but no snow as would be the case later on. Interestingly, (to me at least!) the Finnish word for November translates as 'the dead month' - probably a much more apt description than any word in an imported language.
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