Daily cosmobite: autumn begins
Today is first day of autumn in Australia, where it is traditional to change the seasons at the beginning of the month. This is unlike most other countries where the seasons are based on the astronomical dates of the summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes.
March 03, 2013 at 12:35 pm, Nick Lomb said:
Hello Barbara. There is no ‘correct’ method of deciding on the seasons and when they are taken to start is a convention. Astronomically speaking the hottest days of each year should be around the time of the summer solstice on or about 21 December, but that is not the case in practice. The reason for that it takes time for the atmosphere, the ground and the oceans to warm up and come into equilibrium. Starting three months of summer on 1 December implies that the hottest days are expected in the middle of January as is generally the case in Australia. Thus there is no reason for a switch to the European convention of starting summer at the solstice. Note that the Aboriginal people have six or more seasons during the year, with differences for groups in different parts of the continent. Maybe we should adopt their conventions?
March 03, 2013 at 4:56 pm, Barbara said:
Hi Nick, the aboriginal method sounds good, but not too practical for the whole of Australia. We have enough problems with different time zones changing or not changing to daylight saving. So to have to cope with starting the seasons at different times of year would be too much. I personally always like to use the European method and get very excited when we reach the summer solstice and conversely very depressed on the shortest day.
March 02, 2013 at 2:52 pm, Barbara said:
Why do we in Australia think that the seasons are dictated by the calendar and not by the amount of hours of sunlight each day? What are the chances of us changing to the correct method of changing the seasons?