Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 14, 2009

Weather wise, it has been summer in the Pacific Northwest for over a month.

Technically, the idea that summer technically begins on the solstice is technically a load of BS.

Cleo, here in the NE we still have close to what you guys in the PNW consider “winter” . No snow, but we did have to turn the heat back on last week. Send us some of that sunny warmth! Summer by definition starts the day of/after the solstice, just like Spring and Autumn on the equinoxes, and Winter on the (winter) solstice, despite many places having wintery weather well beforehand. And guess what….. no punchline! :)

So tell us Toby, what significance does the solstice have then? Isnt the solstice a natural phenomenon? Like an eclipse, or the full moon? Just because the solstice doesnt coincide with the end of school or when the Beach Boys tell us summer should start doesnt make it a load of BS.

Technically, I’m with Toby on this, technically. I always thought the day with the most sunlight should be considered the MIDDLE of summer, not the start, and that the day with the least sunlight should be the middle of winter, not the start. Technically. I’m sure there is a reason for the way it is, but I don’t care about it enough to look it up.

But if June 21 was the MIDDLE of summer, when would the first day be? How long technically would summer be? Would you count April and May, and then July and August? What about Spring? When would Winter start and stop? Now I won’t be able to sleep tonight! This is confusing!

The way it works out, the warmest weather comes at least a month or two after the longest day of the year. Earth’s a big planet and so its weather has a lot of inertia. So the timing works out quite well on the average.

god gets a square dialogue box with powder blue backdrop. how cool is that?

It’s not unreasonable to have the longest day be the beginning of summer, since the hottest days come AFTER the days with the most sun. If you gradually turn up the heat on a frying pan, then gradually turn it down, you would find that it is hottest some time after the peak heat is applied. Makes sense, hope.

Wowsers, no one is discussing leading economic indicators and the righites haven’t railed against GT about it.

IT MUST BE SUMMER THEN.

Astronomical summer begins with the summer solstice. Meteorological summer began June 1st.

If you are a farmer or a kid, the seasons depend on the climate for your location.

Traditionally in Ireland, summer runs from May to July, so the solstice (which is not BS, of course, only the idea that summer begins then) is actually after the middle of summer.

That's just one example that I happen to know. Traditional boundaries vary between place and time, not to mention that the tropics have a completely different set of seasons (usually based on wet/dry rather than hot/cold) and of course the southern temperate zone is the reverse of the northern.

And actually dating seasons is a fairly late tradition; a couple of hundred years ago, people knew that the seasons didn't strictly follow the calendar because they were outside in them all the time. So they said things like ‘Summer's here.’ based on the weather rather than the date.

In any case, there is no technical or official sense in which the solstices and equinoxes are the beginning (or middle, or end, or whatever) of their respective seasons. So if the weather puts you in the mood for a summer daydream, then dream away!

I don’t have anything against astronomers, but they are not the only ones capable of coming up with a definition (or even an “official” definition).

OK, Potrzebie, just so you aren’t disappointed, here you go…

Figures can lie and liars can figure.

right, 3 types of lies. lies, dammed lies, and statistics