Which Spring? And A Difficult Call For School Delays

Lesson first, then my school closing prediction:

This morning I opened my eyes to the sound of the Weather Guesser on the radio announcing the first day of Meteorological Spring. 

That opened my eyes wide, because I am not used to hearing a broadcast Weather Guesser being factually correct.  They usually go with the incorrect “spring starts on March 21 (the equinox)” and “summer starts on June 21 (the solstice).” 

There are actually three common ways of organizing the seasons.  The one that has been popularized on the media is the astronomical organization.  Because different stars are visible at different times of the year, astronomers do divide the seasons by astronomical events – the solstices and equinoxes.  But unless you spend your nights studying the cosmos this system really doesn’t match up with real life. 

To meteorologists today really is the first day of spring.  Meteorologists divide the year by temperature:  The three coldest months (December, January, February) represent winter and the three warmest months (June, July, August) are a meteorologist’s summer.  This does make sense in a way that we can understand.  Cold is winter in the northern hemisphere and summer is hot. 

To people more in touch with nature than most Americans are these days, the

seasons were based on everyday observations.  Daylight increases until it affects plants and animals (maple sap has been running for a while and going outside now exposes our ears to hundreds of bird-language equivalents of “hey baby, lets mate!,” skunks and woodchucks have bred, and lambs are growing in the bellies of their mothers.  Under the snow bulbs are starting to push upwards. Really.)  Nature is waking up and we called this spring.

When the daylight decreases and plants start to shut down for the year, it is autumn. 

When the last leaves have fallen and the gardens are dead, it is winter.

The dates in the northern hemisphere that match these natural occurrences come approximately halfway between the astronomical events.  Remember that Shakespeare wrote a play about the longest day of the year (the solstice) and named it “MID-Summer Night’s Dream”, not “First Day of Summer Night’s Dream”.

Halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox is Groundhog Day / Candlemas when nature starts to wake up.  The Biosphere’s spring.

Halfway between the spring equinox and the solstice is May Day / Beltane when flowers open (and people used to dance around phallic symbols and then go out into the fields to demonstrate to Mother Nature what she should be doing with their crops.)  This was seen as the first day of summer as nature started producing flowers and baby animals.

Halfway between the solstice and the autumn equinox the plants react to decreasing daylight by producing fruit and seeds and we celebrated Lammas (Loaf Mass) as we ate the first bread from the new wheat.  Autumn begins.

And halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice comes All Hallow’s Eve, the celebration of the dead, as the harvest is over and nature

begins the winter sleep.

End of the lesson.  Now on to a difficult school closing prediction.  The snow storm has moved faster than originally expected.  Rather than reaching central Connecticut around mid afternoon, the first flakes started to fall around 10:00 am.  The storm will end earlier also.  By sunrise the storm will be gone and the cleanup will begin.

Could schools open on time?  Possibly.  But given the amount of snow already on the roads it might take a while to clear the new accumulation.  So, get up early anyway to shovel your way out, but I think there is a 65% chance of a delayed school opening on Monday, March 2.

As of right now, it looks like your commute to school on Wednesday will be wet and slushy, but on time.