I always liked the concept of the earth’s revolution around the sun providing the four main reference points of the solar year: the equinoxes and the solstices. It works for me as a scientifically objective point of reference derived from our own earth and sun’s relationship. What can I say ::shrug::, the thought of following the rhythms found in our universe has a deep-down appeal for me. I always did have a weakness for astronomy. The way of the four-sided year is synchronized with the four significant changes in the earth-sun relationship; this is visible in the astronomical symbol for Earth/Terra: that circle with the equal-armed cross centered in it.
It ain’t hot enough for summer around these parts yet. Our summer is about 2 months long, if you go by the weather.
High was around 16°C for the Maritimes today (mostly overcast and mist).
School’s out and I’m sitting in front of the computer in my underwear chugging a beer. I’d say meets the qualifications of Summer in anybody’s book.
In Chicago-ish it’s useless to define seasons by dates on the calendar, or by solar conditions. (Remember the politician that couldn’t define pornography, but knew it when he saw it? Whatsisname?) After Winter, there comes a time when it’s almost unbelievable that I could open my windows, and keep them open. That’s Spring.
This is followed by a period in which it’s so hot outside that I have to…Gasp! Close the windows! That’s right, close the windows, and turn on an artificial cooling device. What a F’d up world. Anyway, that’s Summer.
The Chicago Tribune weather blog always refers to meteorological summer which is June 1-August 31. September-November is meteorological fall. Dec-Feb is meteorological winter, March-May is meteorological spring. That is how I see the seasons as well
Okay, that’s plausible.
As a matter of fact, I’ve never been sure how the seasons are named down in the Southern Latitudes. Is that correct, that July/August and parts of June and September are called “summer” in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, etc., and January/February and parts of December and March are “winter”?
Or are seasons Down Under named “the other way”, with “summer” being the hot months and “winter” being the cold months?
I gots me some ignorance here whut needs fightin.
I know just the site for you, Johanna! 
:dubious: :smack:
In the Seattle-Tacoma area, summer really doesn’t start until July. June is as likely to be overcast as sunny, and doesn’t really heat up until the 4th of July. In contrast, my old stomping grounds of eastern Washington has a summer starting in mid-May. For me, the definition of summer is “I need air conditioning/fans to feel reasonably comfortable”.
Sure, but that is not the issue. Accepting that, the issue becomes (more or less) do the solstices and equinoxes mark the beginnings of seasons (as most Americans believe) or the middles of seasons (as sensible people believe)?
Seasons are different in different places. March 20th is not the “middle” of Spring here.
Places in the Southern Hemisphere universally call the hottest months “summer” and the coldest months “winter.” I would be interested to know when people first figured out the season were reversed. The Greeks? The Portuguese when they rounded the African continent?
I decided I could only really vote for the last option on your poll. For me, summer starts in May - maybe not 1 May (though conceivably it could if the weather is warm), as often early May can be distinctly chilly and wet round these parts (UK), but by late May, if the weather is poor I’m definitely thinking “this isn’t the best start to summer” rather than “this spring is finishing late”. However, I couldn’t bring myself to vote “Hell no” because, like you said, most calendars/diaries list 21 June as “first day of summer”. And I don’t think my solution is “very clever”, so that ruled out the third option as well.
Personally, I’d go with summer being mid-May - mid-September, Autumn mid-September to mid-November, winter mid-November to February, Spring March to mid-May.
In the UK they so? :dubious:
I never came across the idea that summer starts on June 21st until I went to live in the USA, where most people say it is “official”. (I guess many US Dopers know better, thanks to Cecil.)
I go by the solstices. It makes perfect sense to me.
In the mid-Atlantic, we have about 3 months of weather suitable for swimming outdoors. That’s summer. And it’s basically June, July, and August.
Defining the seasons in terms of equinoxes and solstices always seemed silly to me. Sure, you can get a cold day in mid-June, or a warm one in mid-September, but the odds are that June 15 is going to have summery weather and September 15 won’t. If you live around here, have an unheated backyard pool, and dive into it on September 15, 2014, you’re likely to be sorry you did.
So saying that September 15 is part of summer, and June 15 isn’t, flies in the face of the actual weather.
I call it a Rose because by any other name, it is still Hot as Hell.
For the US National Weather Service, summer started June 1 and runs to August 31. Unofficially it runs from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day.
Other northern countries have their own rules. Some start summer in May or earlier. E.g., the traditional Irish calendar has summer going from May 1 to July 31.
None “officially” start summer on the solstice. That’s called “midsummer”.
I always found it terribly silly that midsummer’s day was claimed to be the first day of summer. I know we generally don’t have a whole lot of summery weather here in the UK, but still…
Without seeing what the other voters had to say in this category, my “other choice” is that today is more like “mid-summer” that began somewhere about halfway between Spring Equinox and today. Summer will continue until about halfway between now and Autumn Equinox in late September.
I suggest that a graph of daily temperatures would show roughly what I mean.
The precision of the dates for the Solstices and Equinoxes is an astronomical, not meteorological, concept. Those dates and times vary over a few days in each case, whereas the heat/cold phenomena we associate with the seasons vary by weeks sometimes.