Calendar versus Seasons

I don't often post here on ATS, but I believe I want to get a debate going on the following;
I am in my mid-fifties, and over my lifetime, it has become apparent to me that the calendar is slowly getting out of sync with the seasons.
At least here in the UK, we are experiencing mild days over Christmas, snow in April and sometimes May, and summers that seem to be lasting well into October.
So, which do you think it is, calendar running fast or are the seasons slowing down?

Agreed. The calendar means very little anymore, at least here in the Southeast U.S. It will be interesting to read what members from around the globe think.

reply to post by royspeed


I have to agree with you, every year it seems like winter starts earlier and so does summer. I also remember major winter storms around mid-April, they were generally the last one of the season, but I am finding that those storms are moving to late March. Maybe it's just perception but the weather does seem to be out of sync with the calendar dates.

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by royspeed


Hi
Yes it's the same where I live in southern BC Canada. I'm in my early 50's
Of course it's just my opinion, but if memory serves me right it used to be quite warm, even hot in march. June has become the new march. March is cold now. The summer starts late and finishes late. Same with winter.

I wonder has the earth's axis tilted a bit? Even the position of the sun has altered. At 2pm the sun was at its highest point. Not now.

In fact I'm not even using the calendar as a guide to plan things anymore because it's not how it used to be.

Anyways I don't know what would cause this but something is off kilter.

ETA
Just to add that it's evident when planting annual bedding plants. I used to start them in march but if I was to do that now it's far too cold.

I don't pay much attention to some summers being very hot and dry and winters being very cold because cycles are normal. It's the dates that have changed

I'm not too sure to be honest.
I'm in the same age group as you and yes I agree that the seasons seem out of sync.
I just feel that maybe it's happened before here in the UK.

I do however remember the summers back in the sixties.
It seemed that the whole of our six week school holidays we had hot days........
The summer seemed to last longer than nowadays.

I think that the seasons in relation to the calendar are pretty much stable. Possibly, as we get older, and we slow down, we take a little more time to observe what's going on around us. I am willing to concede that in our "gnat" like life spans with regard to how the Universe actually measures time, the idea we are moving into a "higher" position in the particular arm of the milky way we call home, and thus into "cleaner" space may be having some affect on our weather. Aside from that? I really can't say. If moving into a clearer region of "space" is causing a change in planetary weather patterns and the stinking government KNOWS it, they'll never say. But that would give a slight amount of credence, IMO, to the supposition that contrails seem to be larger and more persistent. after all our atmosphere is just a big bubbling mass of garbage anyway, the result of something called "vulcanism" i believe. maybe it just needs a little more garbage in it to maintain an even strain. S + F. A nice riddle to ponder over a pint !

It's hard to tell in northern Canada, or the prairie provinces. We only have 2 seasons. Snow, and not snow. There seems to be about 6 months of each, with April and October being the months of change.
All is well.

I don't count on the calendar to tell me what season it is anymore (NW United States). I can't even describe what is happening - seasons butting into each other - and feels warmer on average.

I don't know if this will make sense but in the late 90's - early 00's (don't know exact year so estimating) I took note of how the sun seemed hotter. I am not sure if that's even possible but I was on the beach one day - and it actually felt different - harsher. So did something change? I wondered if it was just me but had and have heard a few others mention the same thing, some who have blamed the ozone layer. The only other evidence I have is harsher sunburns with less exposure - constant sunscreen). The harsher feeling of it didn't/doesn't change the temperature though so I'm not sure how that influences greenhouse gasses.

Regardless of what climatologists or others say - I've noticed a huge change. To have anything this integral to our planet grab attention is telling enough. It should be so gradual we can't tell it's changing.

The seasons have shifted where I live, also.

Birds that live in Alaska and were never seen here before are setting up residence.

The animals are relocating and have drastically altered their migration patterns.

If scientists know what's going on, they're not sharing that information.

It seems strange that it's not discussed in the news, other than very brief mentions.

kosmicjack
Agreed. The calendar means very little anymore, at least here in the Southeast U.S. It will be interesting to read what members from around the globe think.

Tell me about it. Here in GA it can be 30 in July, and 80 in December. Some 30-35 years ago I remember it being hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It has changed. Its not your imagination.

I'm in the same age group and yes the seasons are off. Part of the problem is that we run on a solar calendar rather than lunar and the equinoxes. We attempt to place them within the solar and try to adjust but as we can see, it's not working out so well. However, running a properly setup lunar calendar with the built in adjustments, it seems to be spot on.

Last year we had some days that were 30c in Dec. and the previous April some as low as 8c, normal should be around 18c and 24c. Some of the change could be due to the sun being very quiet which does happen. In regards to the earths tilt, I couldn't tell you but anything is possible. Either way, we just have to deal with it

I too feel that the seasons & calendar are out of sync from what they were growing up. Just this last March I made the comment that we were going to have to change the name of "June Bugs" to "March Bugs" because that's when they have been showing up the last 2 years. Central US
Everyone I know says the weather is sure different than it used to be.

reply to post by royspeed


I'm in my 60's and I have over the last few years noticed a terrific change in our weather patterns. I remember in the 1970's when living in Kent a terrible winter when the sea froze along the shoreline. We walked along Margate seafront and it was an amazing sight. In our village we had pits and the ice could be seen at least 4' thick if not more by the bubbles trapped in it. That was, however really a one off. We also had the odd summer that was fantastic but again they were one-offs.

Now the weather seems to blur but the consistency of the rain through this winter is again, something I don't remember. Whehn we lived in Kent, we were in a village called Fordwhich which until we moved there had not flooded for the last 40 odd years but when we arrived - naturally flooding occurred for a few years but then it seemed to stop again and we moved so i dont know the current flooding situation.

I know that over long periods of time we have changed the original Pole Star and I wonder if the planet either tilts or its orbit gets affected some how. I do know also that a teacher at my sons school years ago showed me a graph of how often this planet was covered with ice and then defrosted itself. It was unnervingly in the regular swing from one extreme to the other and if the ancient records are right perhaps we should be doing more research into the earth's actual history and looking there to calculate what the future weather patterns hold.

Maybe it looks different but the longest and shortest days looking at daylight did not change as far as I noticed. Ok there were some local reports of shifted daylight (with or without good arguments on the why) but daylight periods haven't shifted a couple of months like we experience seasons.

reply to post by royspeed


I guess it would be impossible to say the calender is perfect (thus the need for a leap year), but that slight variation will inevitably lead to the weather changing in certain months... another few hundred years and summer might be in December

The animals migratory habits have drastically changed, and some are beginning to change where they reside, also.

I get the strong feeling that the animals know something that we don't.

If our weather could be chalked up to a strange year or two, I don't think the animals would be relocating. Even the sea mammals are doing it, which leads me to suspect something of a more permanent nature is happening.