Spring in the Northern Hemisphere has finally arrived; the spring equinox occurred a month ago, Easter has already been celebrated, and many are celebrating the fact that they survived yet another winter.
It is this time of year that I tend to consider the drastic changes that the seasons can bring, and while observing the arrival of a new season, I am reminded of my former perception of the seasons.
Most of my life, I had categorized December as a winter month and June as a summer month, however, I have since realized that December should technically be labeled an autumn month and June a spring month.
Why? Well, just look at a calendar; summer doesn’t begin until the 20th to the 22nd of June, depending on the year. This means that the majority of June exists within spring, not summer, and therefore June is more technically a spring month than a summer month.
Applying this logic, you can extrapolate to produce the following list describing the months based on which season the majority of their days land in:
Winter Months
- January
- February
- March
Spring Months
- April
- May
- June
Summer Months
- July
- August
- September
Autumn Months
- October
- November
- December
Seasons vs. Weather Patterns
Another interesting observation I have made is that my former idea that the beginning of a season marks the beginning of the season’s weather pattern was also technically wrong; the the beginning of a season on the calendar seemingly marks the zenith of the season’s weather pattern.
For example, it seemed that the weather showed the first signs of warming up half way through “winter” rather than waiting until spring equinox to start warming up, and the cold weather of winter began halfway through autumn. Obviously, this changes depending on your climate, but it has often seemed that, on average, this rule of thumb is fairly accurate.
Here is an image depicting a year divided into its weather patterns according to my observations with its solstices and equinoxes marked.
What is the most interesting thing you have observed about the seasons?
Onward American 