What is winter?

[James Smith]

Meteorologists define seasons differently than astronomers.  I'm currently involved in an appeal concerning a mine permit, and one of the issues that has been raised is whether astronomical or meteorological seasons are the referent for "seasonal".  Astronomical seasons are the same worldwide: meteorological seasons vary with longitude, latitude, altitude, and other local factors; hence, many "two season" jokes are meteorologically sound.

James D. SMITH               |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com   |whether we act quickly and
                                    decisively
                             |or slowly and cautiously.


--- On Thu, 2/18/10, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> > Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >> At 2/18/2010 08:05 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:
> >>> A newspaper article today quotes a
> meteorologist of the National
> >>> Weather Service who said that "althought
> winter officially runs from
> >>> Dec 21 to Mar 21, forecasters mostly define it
> as Dec through Feb."
> >>>
> >>> Forecasters are changing the seasons.
> First I've heard about that.
> >>
> >> "As New Englanders know, winter is the longest
> season of the
> >> year."  [Zielinski and Keim, New England
> Weather, 75.]
> >
> > And how far back does "X has two seasons, winter and
> road construction" go?
> >
> > --
> >
> ======================================================================
> > Alice Faber

>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org