The new seasons of the year

[Summer8906]

I've noticed that just about every year seems to follow a pattern of 10 distinct seasons.

From earliest to latest, they are:

1. Winter. Usually centred round mid Jan. Generally fairly dry, fairly settled and cold to average, with only occasionally wet or mild days. Temps generally consistently in the single figures for maxima in the south, with only occasional mild days. 2024/25 apparent dates (unconfirmed as yet): December 25 - January 22. 2023/24 dates: January 5-19. Last time winter lasted more than two or three weeks was 2021 when it persisted from around Christmas to mid-February. In 2020, winter lasted just one week, just after mid-January.

2. Autumnuary. An increasingly prominent season centred round February. Generally wet or very wet, and very mild with constant air from the Atlantic and temperatures consistently at least 10C in terms of maxima in the south, with only occasional cold days. Can be short (only a week in 2019 and two weeks in 2021) but can be very long indeed; in 2024, it lasted an unprecedented near-three-months from around January 20 to April 12. The last year the season completely failed to appear was 2012, when we went straight from winter to spring.

3. Spring. Generally marked by mostly benign and settled weather with only short unsettled spells. Often moderately warm but can contain potent northerly outbreaks at times. Generally blocked weather patterns. Normally decently long at around two months but in 2024 lasted little more than two weeks (around April 13-30).

4. Maytumn. Following spring there is usually a spell of dull and wet Atlantic conditions in late May, which also coincides with the end of spring flowering so can be a somewhat downbeat season. Generally fairly transient but in 2024, Maytumn managed to last the entire month of May. Usually late May but in 2023 was early (May 4-11). Sometimes delayed until June.

5. Summer. Following Maytumn things then improve with a consistently fine and settled period, usually centred in June. For example in 2024 summer lasted from around June 1-25. Atlantic activity rare. Sadly a shorter season than in the past. In 2023 it came very early, starting on May 12 and ending on June 25.

6. Summertumn. An increasingly long and prominent season in recent times, which can last three months in the worst case. A prolonged period of dull and often damp weather with maxima often below 20 away from the favoured London and SE, Atlantic domination, and only transient short heatwaves. Especially long in 2023 and 2024 when it essentially covered all of July and August. Rarely these days, summertumn was entirely non-existent in 2022 but that was almost a unique occurrence. Usually begins in July, can be June, can be as late as August (2018). Too light for autumn proper, too unsettled and dull to be considered summer.

7. Little Summer. Most years feature a fine settled and often warm spell at some point in September. If you're lucky it can last the whole month but in recent times it's generally been short and transient lasting around 10 days.

8. Autumn. Finally the real-deal autumn arrives, generally mid-to-late Sep and persisting for around two months. Often wet but can be dry, settled and cloudy.

9. Little Winter. A short taster of winter seems to consistently arrive around the end of Nov, or early Dec. In 2024 this was earlier than normal in the third week of Nov but nonetheless it always seems to happen nowadays.

10. Festumn. Following little-winter, autumnal conditions return with wet, windy and dull weather for the Christmas and New Year period. Up to 13/14 was often a very prominent season indeed extending well into the new year, but has somewhat lessened in significance recently. In 2024 lasted basically one week, unusually short.

So with that in mind, happy first day of Autumnuary. Usual celebrations involve losing yourself in historical archive charts from years such as 1979, 1985, 1987 or 2010.

The question is, will Autumnuary persist this year or will we get the rare occurrence (only seen recently in 2013 and 2018) when winter returns after Autumnuary finishes?

[cheeky_monkey]

just have winter and summer here