Actually the British system is closer to right when you think about it. summer and winter should really have the summer and winter solstice in the middle which would mean summer should start earlier than June 1 and winter should start earlier than December 1. The equinox should fall in the middle of spring and autumn. How did it all become such a mess? I never knew the seasons were different around the world except tropical areas which have a wet and dry season.
How did it become such a mess? And this comment comes from someone living in a country where they have a 1.5 hour difference between time zones. :noidea: You are right that the seasons precede the official calendar seasons. The actual amount varies by location. Putting the solstice and equinox right in the middle would be a little off in our area, but probably closer than what we have right now. Speaking of moving things around on the calendar, I wish Christmas was located a month later. In the U.S. we have a lot holidays stacked up in the fall (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years), but then a long dry spell until Easter. If we moved Christmas back a month it would even things out, and at least for this area, give us a better chance of having a nice snowy Christmas. Tom
Happy Solstice, everyone! It may be the first day of astronomical winter, but if you have to worry about snow (which you do by December 1), it's winter as far as I'm concerned. There's a reason they call them "midsummer" and "midwinter" in Olde England.
Ah, that was one of the nice things when I lived in Jarkarta - wet and dry. Actually, the whole year was minimum of 23°C, maximum of 32°C, but in the wet season the rain bucketed down for about an hour in the middle of the day, flooded all the streets, and that was it. Dry season, the rain was a lot shorter - say 5 minutes every 2-3 days. Same bucketing down though.
... and for those of us, members of the tribe who are not celebrating Christmas -- maybe you saw this on SNL last year , I'm still laughing -- Happy Holidays! Saturday Night Live - Christmas for the Jews Song - Video - NBC.com
So true, ronhoward! So, due to a chance line in a christmas carol alluding to ghost stories, and the popularity of The Christmas Carol, I did a little Googling, and discovered that in olden times, the celtic belief was that Yule was a time when spirits walked the earth (not necessarily the ghost of departed family, as that is what Samhain is all about). The Dickens story is based on that sort of old belief. If you Google "ghost story christmas" you'll get a few links to christmas time ghost stories! way cool stuff
You're right, Pat. I lived in Nairobi, Kenya for a couple of years back in the early 80s. Nairobi is just 2 degrees below the Equator, and we had essentially 12 hour days throughout the year. When night fell, it really crashed, no lingering twilight there! The seasons were divided into wet and dry, determined by the continental movement North and South of the inter-tropical convergence zone. Fascinating country, Kenya. Well worth a visit.
Crappy video. There are no tigers in Kenya. The Big Five, so-called because they will attack you with intent to kill, are; lions; leopards; buffalo; elephants and black rhinos. The white rhino unfortunately is almost extinct, because it was so gentle it could be approached and shot with equanimity, for its horn, used in dagger handles and ground up for supposedly aphrodisiac qualities. I actually was able to pet two that were kept at a park in Kenya, kept under armed guard to dissuade poachers. Years after I left Kenya I read that poachers killed both of them. Nice species we humans, eh?
Ron, we are truly a nasty selfish lot. In Adelaide we have a hot dry summer Followed by a cooler dry autumn Followed by a cool dry winter Followed by a slightly warmer dry spring. Yes it's dry.
Sounds similar to Southern California, which is around the same latitude North of the equator as Adelaide is to the South. But you must get rain at some time, no? Right now is our rainy season. We are hoping for plenty of it this year, to make up for the many dry recent years. I have read and seen footage in recent years of the terrible brush fires in some parts of OZ, but can't remember where ... maybe NSW? Has the climate in parts of Australia become dryer than it was in previous decades? (Incidentally, I'm intrigued by your avatar pic ... an ostrich I assume. A marsupial variety?!)
