Talk:Season

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[edit] WikiProject Time assessment rating comment

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—Yamara ✉ 02:36, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Astronomical Reckoning or Triditional Reckoning?

Astronomical seasons should be reckoned by insolation. The seasons should begin at the cross-quarter days in the astronomical view of point. In astronomical view, the Summer Solstice is the "hottest" day of the year. So how can Summer Solstice be the beginning the summer?

Dividing seasons using solstices and equinoxes is just a compromise of meteorological reckoning and days with astronomical meaning. They're just approximate dates, aren't they?

[edit] The Seasonal Quarters: Dates of the Solstices and Equinoxes

[|The US Naval Obseravtory publishes "the" national standard data for the dates and times of the solstices and equinoxes. The times given there are in UT (Universal Time -similar to GMT) so they read 5 hours ahead of what clocks are reading in the US's Eastern Standard Time or 4 hours during Eastern Daylight Saving Time. The following values represent the actual/correct dates based on USA time (EST/EDT).

MARCH EQUINOX: usually March 20th; occasionally the 21st; NEVER the 24th or 25th...

JUNE SOLSTICE: usually June 21st; occasionally the 20th...

SEPTEMBER EQUINOX: usually Sept. 23rd; occasionally the 22nd; NEVER (never) the 20th, 21st 24th, 25th...

DECEMBER SOLSTICE: usually Dec. 21st; occasionally the 22nd

So, per the above, the article is incorrect(at 9/11/07 it still was saying "Autumn (90 days) on 21-22 Sept, the autumn equinox"): the Earth NEVER (ever) reaches (USA's) Autumnal Equinox on September 21st. In the US's Eastern Daylight Time zone the Autumnal Equinox usually occurs on September 23rd and occasionally on September 22nd. Therefore I have corrected that line in the main article to say "Sept 22-23" today. earrach9/11/07

[edit] Old talk

They are traditional dates, any American dates are recent imports. See for instance Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun, pp140-141: "From this ceremony the feast took its popular British name of Candlemas; it marked the formal opening of spring...", p218: "Finally in both under 'Cetsoman' is the definition 'First May, i.e. the first motion...of summer'..." etc.
Consider also "darling buds of may" in Shakespeare's "summers day": may is hawthorn, but hawthorn blooms are gone by the time of the summer solstice. —Ashley Y 10:11, Apr 19, 2004 (UTC) (also British)

[edit] fall vs autumn

A friend of mine were pondering this question the other day, & like every other fact questions I encounter, I came to the internet for an answer to these questions: 1. Is "fall" the only season with two titles? 2. If so, why? This is not an earth shattering, life altering issue for me, but would be another bit of trivia for my cesspool(sp?) of useless information(Ha,Ha!) So, thanks to anyone for posting the answer to these questions. from Diane in Portland, OR —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.253.69.167 (talk) 20:45, 11 December 2005

The season of spring is sometimes referred to as "vernal," such as in "vernal equinox." Both "vernal" and "autumnal" come from Latin. I guess since "spring" and "fall" come from english words, they must come from Germanic roots.--gwc 19:30, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
If my memory serves me correctly, spring was once called Lenten or something of the sort in Middle English ... yeah, 'twas a long time ago ... Jimp 09:24, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] precession of the equinoxes

Shouldn't something about precession of the equinoxes be included here? I'd imagine that given the various cycles they'd be highly pertinent. John Riemann Soong 10:18, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other Cultural Acknowledgement

Different aboriginal groups in Australia recognise up to 13 seasons a year depending on the region where they are from. I think that this should be noted in here somewhere.See:

http://www.deh.gov.au/parks/kakadu/artculture/seasons.html http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/climate_culture/Indig_seasons.shtml http://www.stirling.au.com/educ/traditional_culture.pdf http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/indigenous/ http://home.vicnet.net.au/~herring/seasons.htm

Knobcheesedeluxe 23:15, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wet/dry division? Expert probably needed here

I'm surprised to see there's almost no discussion of the division of time into systems of seasons other than four, and in particular the wet/dry division that typifies much of the world's climate. (We have two seasons, wet and dry, where I live, and I live in the United States!) I think most of the article does a very good job, but the focus on temperate seasons is a pretty serious bias. We need an expert, or at least someone who knows more than I do, to write something about how seasons are divided into wet and dry. I've added the expert request tag in response to this specific concern; the rest of the article is, as I said, very good. Elliotreed 08:28, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Move to Season (meteorology) ?

There are many other uses of the word season, as can be seen from the page Season (disambiguation). I propose to promote that page to the neutral "Season" article name. The current "season" article should then be renamed to "Season (meteorology)". I suspect that many people landing at "Season" are looking for fashion, school, sport or other seasons. −Woodstone 13:23, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure. I have a feeling that people that search "season" are most likely looking for these seasons, and the rest click the hadnote. For one this is by far the longest and most edited article of the bunch. And these are the only seasons that are (always) colloquially referred to as "seasons"--while people often refer to the other seasons as "sport seasons" etc, they don't colloquially call these seasons "meteorological seasons." And also, calling them "meteorological seasons" may also be quite confusing because this page itself uses that term (as well as "traditional seasons" and "astronomical seasons") to refer to a specific definition/reckoning of season. --gwc 17:17, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Winter is the first season

Winter is the first season. dose march look like the first month too you? (-anonymous)

Huh? earrach

Has it ever occurred to you that December may have anything to do with "decimal"? Indeed it used to be the tenth month. Just like october and november are named after the Latin numerals for 8 and 9. That makes March the original first month. −Woodstone 13:53, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Incorrect Caption for Images and scientifically wrong image

I am referring here actually two images North_seaosn.jpg and South_season.jpg. Caption of first image is

Diagram of the Earth's seasons as seen from the north. Far right: December solstice

and caption of second image is

Diagram of the Earth's seasons as seen from the south. Far left: June solstice

Direction of orbiting and spinning in lower image shown are wrong. In fact only one image would have suffice to explain scientific cause of season in both the hemisphere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pruthvi.vallabh (talk • contribs) 17:46, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dry Season Cool/Hot Division?

Why is there a division between cool dry season and hot dry season? I know it makes a difference, but there isn't any information, or articles.

I, of course, mean on the top navigation table. The one with all the seasons. 75.6.255.45 02:59, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reckoning section

The "reckoning" section describes the reckoning for the seasons at Denmark, USSR, Australia, UK, Ireland, traditional cultures (Northern hemisphere, East Asian, Irish), plus the Australian Arborigenes. It just misses describing it for the rest of the world... USA, Latin America, Africa and Europe. Also, no word about Mayas, Aztecs, Incas, Egyptian, Persians & other Near East cultures -- all of which acquired very sophisticated astronomical knowledge (and built huge pyramids and monumets) to track the seeasons. No word about Stonehenge either, or the other Neolithic monuments that helped track down the seasons. This is a good article, but overall I was a bit let down as I read it entirely and I still don't know when the seasons start in the USA... Thank you! ;^) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.137.135.58 (talk) 22:01, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Though there are cultural claims, There are no scientific or official beginning dates of calendar seasons in the USA. Even the use of the word "astronomical" is a misnomer, as it in reality cannot distinguish the significance of a solstice or equinox as being either midpoint or beginning point. The source for the categorization of the reckoning section seems highly questionable at best.99.140.190.221 (talk) 18:42, 17 January 2008 (UTC)


whats up dogs —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.234.246.163 (talk) 02:43, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] hunting season?

There ought to be Enelson (talk) 17:27, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Does Earth's elliptical orbit influence seasons?

As of 15 May 2008 the article includes the following mutually incompatible statements:

"Seasonal weather differences between hemispheres are further caused by the elliptical orbit of Earth. Earth reaches perihelion (the point in its orbit closest to the Sun) in January, and it reaches aphelion (farthest point from the Sun) in July. Even though the effect this has on Earth's seasons is minor, it does noticeably soften the northern hemisphere's winters and summers. In the southern hemisphere, the opposite effect is observed."

"Compared to axial tilt, other factors contribute little to seasonal temperature changes. The seasons are not the result of the variation in Earth’s distance to the sun because of its elliptical orbit.[2] Orbital eccentricity can influence temperatures, but on Earth, this effect is small and is more than counteracted by other factors; research shows that the Earth as a whole is actually slightly warmer when farther from the sun.[3]"

Can anyone resolve this? Lfh (talk) 18:57, 15 May 2008 (UTC)