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Celebrating the Winter Solstice

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Front-Ranger:
Do LED candles count in solstice celebrations?

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 22, 2016, 11:55:13 am ---You just answered a longstanding question of mine, whether people in Australia and environs call our summer winter and our winter summer. And, they do!!

--- End quote ---

I always wonder that, too. Do they think of summer as a cold season and winter as warm -- or are summer and winter universal terms for warm season and cold season, respectively? Now we know it's the latter.

I think I asked Sheyne this question long ago, got an answer, but then forgot it.

brianr:
The only difference I know is that we say that Summer starts on December 1 and ends on February 28/29. Autumn starts March 1. You seem to start Winter at the solstice December 21/22

serious crayons:

--- Quote from: brian on December 22, 2017, 01:22:51 pm ---The only difference I know is that we say that Summer starts on December 1 and ends on February 28/29. Autumn starts March 1. You seem to start Winter at the solstice December 21/22
--- End quote ---

Correct, the official calendar dates for the respective seasons coincide with the solstices and equinoxes. But people don't really think of them that way. It may be a little personalized and depends slightly on your location, but most people think of winter as December through February, spring as March through May, summer as June through August, fall as September through November.

That leads to much hilarity in broadcast weather segments when the temperature on the "first day of winter" is 10 degrees F below zero, which wouldn't be all that unusual here (this Sunday, the "fourth day of winter," the predicted low is -9F). Likewise the "first day of summer" coming after weeks of heat or the "first day of fall" happening long after the weather has cooled off.

On the other hand, when I lived in New Orleans, where it's 95 degrees through September, it's weird to hear a radio ad for an upcoming "fall festival."

 

brianr:
Having lived most of my life in Sydney which has a latitude (34'S) and climate very like Charleston NC, I can appreciate life in New Orleans. For 28 years I lived 80 km inland and at 2000 ft a.s. l so it was not quite so hot and when I moved there it was usually cooler at night but that was changing.
I use to avoid staying overnight at my mother's apartment until after my birthday in mid-March but it was not always avoidable. The nights were so hot. It is why this year I have broken my promise (when I moved) to always return to my sister for Christmas. She lives on the same floor as my mother did but in a bigger apartment. However the spare bedroom is much like my mother's lounge room where I use to sleep with no cross ventilation. I made the definite decision to migrate when on my mother's last New Year's Day it was 46'C (115'F). My mother's oxygen machine broke down (we had to get the cylinders) and they were closing picture theatres due to aircon breaking down.

Now I am in Dunedin (46'S) much like Maine, the maximum temperature ever recorded was 32'C (90'F) however because the landmass of NZ is so much smaller we do not get the cold of Maine. I have not seen it below -2'C (28'F) at my place 300 metres a.s.l but it does get down to -6'C at the airport on the river flat to the south and can be -16'C (3'F) in inland areas of the province which is called Central and about 100km inland.

People are surprised that Dunedin has lower rainfall than Sydney because Sydney receives a lot in thunderstorms when it pelts down. In Dunedin it tends to be just drizzle. Also it is more reliable. Sydney has water storage to last for years (it was 7 years when I was teaching geography but probably much less now due to rising population, they have installed a very expensive water desalination plant). Here in Dunedin we have 3-4 weeks supply  ;D Also water is not metered, there have been no restrictions on use since I lived here but there have been some in the past. Watering gardens was often severely restricted in Sydney (only by hand morning and evening on 2 days per week when I left).

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