I wouldn’t discount summer just yet! The weather across the entire Earth is becoming more and more erratic … one might say “unseasonable.” Denver could have a long Indian summer yet to come …

Then again, with the whole climate changing, all bets are off. So who knows?

In the years ahead, our old-fashioned thoughts of “my town has this or that particular climate” might need serious adjustment. Maybe thoughts of a particular climate in a particular place won’t apply anymore … at least not as it did in the period of climate stability that you and I have lived through most of our lives.

D

By the end of summer I typically was ready for school to start again, and although I actually always thought of Halloween as kind of a silly observance, I looked forward to it because it meant that fall was in full swing and that the holiday season really had begun. I really have always loved fall, but in part it may be because I looked so much forward to Christmas. As a nerdy kid whose mother worked at Woolworth’s I always bought all my Christmas presents (my Mom gave me the money) at the employee open house, usually in late August as I recall. It was fun and the high point of my life. So I loved fall and winter up until Christmas. Then on Christmas day it all fell apart because I knew it was over for another year! I remember stockings with nothing but apples, oranges, nuts and may be candy, but I don’t remember putting Santa’s letters up the chimney (in large part because we had no fireplace!).

Debbie,

I should report that as of today (10 September) there are many more signs of fall, although no mass change of leaves, just the random cluster here and there. But today it is chilly (50s) and rainy here in Denver. It may get a bit warmer, but Summer is definitely gone.

LS

Every August, in the early morning at the pool, the water becomes choppy. Not sure why. Maybe winds during the night? Or a cooler temperature at night? At any rate, the choppiness of the water at our beloved pool on August mornings is always a sure sign of autumn on its way.

Deborah

I think Diane hit the nail on the head.

It is the ‘feel’ of the time of year rather than the date.

As children, it was a challenge to find the first primrose or birds nest but there was a ‘feel’ in the air inspite of changeable weather at a particular time.

Larry, your comments of the best time of the year as a kid, Halloween to Christmas, brings back very happy memories. By the way, a greater change has come about for children now. We used to send our letters to Santa Clause by putting them up the chimney. With all the modern heating systems that is often no longer possible.

We still have an open fire, perhaps adding to the global warming, and Santa still comes.
George

I think that aside from any consideration of global warming and climate change, there would be years in which the conditions for a change in seasons happens significantly before or after the astronomical markers of solstice and equinox. And in fact, from what I have read the signal of a change in climate has been, from the geologic record, a period of unsettled weather where things don’t quite seem to be where they should be, such as summer weather in fall, spring like weather in winter and so on. But I think for the time being we have to maintain those astronoical definitions unless we are willing to declare fall in the Rhineland at the same time it is mid-summer (by the thermometer) in Arizona. Like Time Zones, the astronomical seasonal definitions help keep us on the same page if not all at the same traditional “season.”

I certainly agree with Diane that there is a big component of “feeling” in our thoughts about the seasons. It has felt like fall for me for a while now, well before the astronomical definition applies. For me it feels dry, and can be warm but with a breeze, and nature is quieter than in Summer. Maybe there are crickets in the middle of the daytime, even amid the chorus of cicadas. I have always been a fan of fall, probably because as a kid it summoned the best time of year, from Halloween through Christmas!

LS

I wonder if we can still stick to the 23 rd September ’stsrt’ to Fall or Spring.

When I came to Guyana, a number of years ago, the talk was of the May / June rains. Now with all the climate changes the rains still continue well into late August, and the temperatures vary accordingly.

Perhaps Fall/Spring start should join the list of ‘moveable’ dates?

George