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The seasons months

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  • 23-08-2007 12:36pm
    #1
    Gegerty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 900 ✭✭✭


    This bugs the hell out of me. Why do Irish people think Summer is May,June,July? Just opened an article on independent.ie and the opening paragraph says we are long into Autumn. WTF? Now I agree the seasons are messed up but how can we have different seasons to the rest of the Northern Hemisphere? I think Irish people confuse "Summer Time" as in IST or BST with the actual Summer season.


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    #2
    ch750536
    Registered Users Posts: 3,736 ✭✭✭ch750536


    Wiki
    Wikipedia wrote:
    Astronomically, some Western countries consider autumn to begin with the September equinox (around September 23) in the northern hemisphere,...

    ...Such conventions are by no means universal, however. An example is found in the Irish Calendar which still follows the Celtic cycle, where autumn is counted as the whole months of August, September and October.

    Your issue is....


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    #3
    Gegerty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 900 ✭✭✭Gegerty


    Any more reliable source than Wikipedia? So from what you have quoted we have different seasons to Belfast. So we can cross the border in August and get a little extra Summer break. My point is the weather does not go by a Celtic calendar, if its summer its summer. Lambs are born in Spring, The leaves grow back in Spring, summer flowers bloom in summer etc etc, they don't go by the Celtic calendar. I don't see leaves falling from the trees right now.


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    #4
    dloob
    Registered Users Posts: 1,831 ✭✭✭dloob


    I refute your wiki link and strike back with this contradictory wiki link
    In modern United Kingdom and Ireland there are no hard and fast rules about seasons, and informally many people use this reckoning.

    So, in meteorology for the Northern hemisphere:

    * spring begins on March 1,
    * summer on June 1,
    * autumn on September 1, and
    * winter on December 1.

    I also seem to remember the Weather on RTE referring to September as the start of Autumn. Keep an eye on their broadcasts around the end of the month


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    #5
    rc28
    Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭rc28


    dloob wrote:
    I refute your wiki link and strike back with this contradictory wiki link



    I also seem to remember the Weather on RTE referring to September as the start of Autumn. Keep an eye on their broadcasts around the end of the month
    There is no doubt about it, in meteorological terms autumn always begins on the 1st of september in any northern hemisphere country. But some people in Ireland always consider 1st of Feb to be the start of Spring and august to be autumn (dont ask me why:rolleyes: ). I remeber there was a debate like this on netweather a few months back when a few of the scottish and Irish people were saying how in their country many consider the 1st of may to be the start of summer.


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    #6
    sunset
    Registered Users Posts: 103 ✭✭sunset


    Sometimes RTE have stated the beginning of August to be the start of autumn. There have been explosive comments in our household when this has happened, so I remember it well. Clearly the influence of the Celtic calendar.

    However, 3 month seasons are also very arbitrary. The weather does not organise itself so conveniently. Climatic statisticians seem to be unaware of this. A statistically 'warmer winter' (DJF) may be actually an early spring or a later autumn in terms of the atmospheric circulation and real weather.


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    #7
    ch750536
    Registered Users Posts: 3,736 ✭✭✭ch750536


    IIRC summer started in April this year.

    Autumn came in may.


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    #8
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    In this country you hear people and the media talk about Feb 1st as first day of spring when winter weather has'nt even peaked!

    But then some folk call 3 pm evening.

    Mike.


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    #9
    Mobhi1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,685 ✭✭✭Mobhi1


    Celtic seasons are what they are probably because these are the months closest to, and centred around, the equinoxes and solstices (e.g most of May is closer to the summer solstice than most of August; similarly most of February is closer to March 21st than May!). (Also the traditional seasons centred around things such as the harvest; hence Autumn (or the harvest season) included August!) As there is a lag in the heating up or cooling down of the earth (and, more so, the sea!) in relation to the height of the sun the meteorological seasons, which most people seem to go by these days, are a month or so later. Anyway, fixed seasons don't mean a lot in Ireland as the expected weather for a season often doesn't occur in that season anyway!


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    #10
    Lirange
    Registered Users Posts: 2,095 ✭✭✭Lirange


    Many if not most western countries use the Solstice and Equinox. This is what the BBC uses. Usually these occur somewhere between the 20th to the 23rd of December, March, June, and September.


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    #11
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    The reason the seasons are as they are in Ireland is because of the month names as Gaeilge
    Mean Fomhair and Deire Fomhair
    Deire Fomahir ends on Oiche Shamhna, and Deire means end. Mean means middle

    So these months are Middle of Autumn and End of Autumn.

    They're also spread reasonable well about the solstices and equinoxes which appear near the middle of the Irish seasons.

    But as we know, you can have 4 seasons in one day on a regular basis in Ireland...


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