Winter 20/21 - General Discussion

Loughc wrote: »

Firstly this is the Winter season not Autumn.

Just silly. This is the autumn season, not winter.

Looking forward to deep crunching snow this winter.
Must be one of the best sounds hearing snow crunching under foot.

I think the idea of November being Winter ires some people as theres rarely snow in it but days and days of rain and wind are a signal for Winters start.

In school November was Winters start always and ever.

Graces7 wrote: »

Here we go! every winter this comes up!

There is no rule saying each season has the same number of months in it. So why try to impose that artificially?

August is summer; Sept and Oct are autumn, November is winter. and so on.

If you want to think differently, that is absolutely fine; free country and all that! But we were raised and taught as we believe and observe.

Tolerance please! And it is winter here.

Have a wonderful day!

So winter lasts for 5 months in your world? March is on average 1 degree colder than November so has more claim to being part of winter than November does in my books.

Graces7 wrote: »

Now where did I say that! roflol...

Autumn is Sept/October

Winter is November through Feb.

Spring is March and April . Everything starts growing and SPRINGING in March..

Summer? May .June , July and August

That is how I live it and if you live it differently that is fine too. It is not about temps and stats etc but about the life of the world we live in; plants and trees etc.

But as I said; if you see it differently? That is your privilege. I am not quarrelling with you! OK? OK!

So why quarrel if someone sees it differently?

Today here is pure WINTER!

Bless you!

I'll leave this here. You'd do well to take your own advice.

Graces7 wrote: »

The idea of November being autumn is more than " silly". :rolleyes:

Gonzo wrote: »

Summer - June, July, August
Autumn - September, October, November
Winter - December, January, February
Spring - March, April, May

the above is officially the seasons we were told in school, now the weather may not always stick to the seasons above particularly in this country where similar conditions can pass through all 4 seasons.

Unfortunately when it comes to winter weather we often don't see the first signs of it till late January or early February when things begin to cool down more. Front loaded winters are an absolute rarity here. We usually get our snow just as Spring begins, usually not much more than a few flakes on the bin lids.

As for summer we usually get that in May and September, most of the time July and particularly August can be a rubbish autumnal month. If we had to pay for our seasons in this country i'd be looking for a refund every year on Winters and Summers. Autumn can pretty much strike at any stage throughout the whole year in this country.

well it just goes to show, we all have been taught differently growing up..:)
for me its always been:
Feb/Mar/April spring ( In school, St Brigid's day was the first day of spring)
May/June/July Summer
Aug/Sept/Oct Autumn
Nov/Dec/Jan Winter
and before people go mad, Im just saying that is what we were taught in school etc .....and in my mind I go with that now for the seasons....

snowgal wrote: »

well it just goes to show, we all have been taught differently growing up..:)
for me its always been:
Feb/Mar/April spring ( In school, St Brigid's day was the first day of spring)
May/June/July Summer
Aug/Sept/Oct Autumn
Nov/Dec/Jan Winter
and before people go mad, Im just saying that is what we were taught in school etc .....and in my mind I go with that now for the seasons....

Yes, same here, we were taught this in School - I looked it up and it has something to do with the Celtic calendar - whatever that is! It's obviously outdated now! I'm slowly getting used to September being the start of Autumn!:pac:

What always amuses me about this annual debate is that nobody seems to be aware of where it comes from. Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasadh and Samhain are the four Celtic seasonal festivale, each marking the beginning of its respective season, and the Imbolc tradition in particular (Spring beginning on the 2nd of February) is something which has persisted in cultural memory and in a lot of primary school traditions etc. People didn't just pull the seasons out of their arses like

In fairness it actually does make sense - it simply defines the seasons based on hours of daylight as opposed to weather. The weather takes about a month to catch up with the planet's movement and tilt in relation to the sun, and this is why meteorological winter is one month ahead of the cultural winter in Ireland, which is still predominantly linked to daylight.

Most people associate November with Winter not only because of this tradition but because the clocks going back on the last weekend in October really makes it suddenly feel like we've been suddenly plunged into a different season altogether.

What does annoy me to be honest is the snobbery from some weather enthusiasts - I'd say the vast majority of people born pre-2000s were taught the cultural delineators of the seasons in school and by their parents, so they're not "wrong" and don't deserve to be made fun of or chastised for their belief that Spring begins in Feb and Winter begins in November. It's just a cultural thing which differs from the scientific term.

Personally I'll always hold that Winter begins in November seeing as it suddenly gets a lot colder and darker out. I realise that as far as weather systems go this is technically inaccurate, but those colouring books we had to fill out in Junior and Senior infants will take a lot more than internet squabbles to dislodge from my brain, and they consistently defined the seasons by their Celtic festivals rather than their meteorological changes.

Slashermcguirk wrote: »

Met eireann say winter starts on 1st December and it runs to end of February. Dec to Feb are the three coldest months of the year statistically. I know a lot of people from Scandinavia and they also say December to February is winter.

If you even go to Continental Europe most Novembers you will rarely see lying snow. Just look around the continent right now, hardly a snow flake being seen except mountains

Absolutely. What I'm saying is that Ireland has always traditionally anchored its seasons based on daylight hours as opposed to climate, and that while this is not scientifically correct, it is certainly culturally correct and people shouldn't be made fun of for repeating the cultural method of defining seasons which they in all probability picked up in either primary school or at home.

Yes, to a meteorologist it's technically incorrect, but if you take into account that Irish tradition simply disregards the weather and anchors its seasons based on equinoxes and solstices, it makes as much sense as our meteorological method. Doubly so as long as Daylight Saving Time remains an annual feature (I know there are moves to abolish it at the moment) as for many people and for many generations, the beginning of Winter was inexorably linked to the end of British Summer Time and the corresponding arrival of afternoon darkness.

Is this not supposed to be a weather forum?

The meteorological summer in Ireland is June to August and winter is from December to February. As that’s what the weather experts say.

Surely that should settle it, no?

According to Met E, we had the sunniest spring on record this year.

However according to some people here it wouldn’t have been recording breaking at all as May (the sunniest month on record for most) was in “summer.”

Correctly defining seasons is kinda important I would have thought.

If we be pedantic, then considering that the warmest 91 day period in Ireland, on average, is mid-June and mid - September, then that is what the true summer period is. For me, November is a real Autumn month, and while I appreciate that it can be dark and gloomy, this is only because we are just out of summer/early Autumn where long evenings are still fresh in our minds. Today, for example, will have about the same daylight length as a day in very late Jan or early Feb, but by then, we'll already be commenting on how the evenings are beginning to stretch out at last.

What I don't understand is how Feb and March can be classed as 'spring months', even in the old calendar. These two months are amongst the most brutish and grim of the year where death and despair is all encompassing, and I sometimes question whether April should be even classed as a spring month as well, given that there does be little sign of nature springing into life during it and often contains a chill that wouldn't be even felt in the winter.