I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

Sarah wrote:
I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

You might want to enqire on an astronomy site.

Freitag, 1. September 2006 08:52 (US Central Time)
Sarah wrote in alt.talk.weather:

I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

Guess You are referring to the meteoroligal dates. Today was the first day
of fall for the weather guys in Europe. They like "normal dates, so they
put it on the first of the month.

Hans from Germany ... (0 to go)
--
2006/09/01 20:20
EDDS 012020Z 03002KT CAVOK 17/14 Q1017

On Fri, 01 Sep 2006 06:52:54 -0700, Sarah wrote:

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

Don't know - don't care.

Ma Hogany

--
"Even though a peice of code may be documented it doesn't make it readable,
understandable or even usable. Especially when said documentation starts with
"I don't know exactly why this was included, what it does, or how it does it
but the system won't work without it" or simply "Sorry about this..."

"Sarah" wrote

I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

Yes, Australia does the same thing. What difference does it make?

Sarah wrote:

I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

The odd thing is, the news reporters also mention the confusion over which
[arbitrary] date to use for the start of spring
Also it should be mentioned that equinoxes and solstices do not occur on
exactly the same date every year
And the exact time of the solstice (UTC) will mean a different day depending
where you are in relation to the International Date Line
(I wanted to write a program that calculated the day of the chinese new year
for any year once, and found, much to my surprise, how ambiguous the whole
time in relation to the sun/earth really is)


--
Fry: A female leader? Ha ha ha!
Leela: Shut up, Fry.
Fry: Yes, captain.

blog: http://shanes.dyndns.org

Sarah wrote:

I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

Logically the equinoxes and the solstices should mark the *middle* of
their respective seasons. The start of spring should therefore be
halfway between 21 June and 21 September. That puts the start of spring
some time in early August. Obviously the temperatures do match the
astronomical seasons so I guess the 'official' start of Spring has been
arbitrarily moved to slightly later.

Cheers,

Cliff

Enkidu wrote:
Sarah wrote:

I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

Logically the equinoxes and the solstices should mark the *middle* of
their respective seasons. The start of spring should therefore be
halfway between 21 June and 21 September. That puts the start of spring
some time in early August. Obviously the temperatures do match the
astronomical seasons so I guess the 'official' start of Spring has been
arbitrarily moved to slightly later.

Except that with the Arctic the height of summer is in September. And
this lag seems to be mirrored in the North Atlantic with the warmest
weather statistically toward the end of July.

Even in the diurnal melodrama the warmest hour is after noon.

On a side note, the earth is moving at its quickest around wintertime
(Summer in the southern hemisphere, as its orbit brings it closest to
the sun in those days -IIRC. So Antipodian summers are hotter (day for
day) and shorter than Mediterranean ones.)

Sarah wrote:
I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

I had a tourist from Michigan, USA ask me at work that question last
week also LOL...i couldn't answer...said that's the way it's been all
my life lol

Sarns

"Sarns" wrote in message
ps.com...

Sarah wrote:
I am wondering why spring - and all other seasons -"officially"
begin at the first of the month in which a solstice or equinox take
place in New Zealand? Everywhere else I have lived in Europe and the
USA seasons begin at the equinox or solstice (22nd or 21st).

I even owned a calendar in NZ one year that said all southern
hemisphere countries the season change began on the solstice or
equinox.

Do other countries besides NZ begin on the 1st? Does Australia?

I had a tourist from Michigan, USA ask me at work that question last
week also LOL...i couldn't answer...said that's the way it's been all
my life lol

Sarns

Is it possible to change any of these dates/times. What difference would it
make if man decided that summer was May 1st or winter started December
31st. Why do we have to have different times, the sun goes down and comes
up, so why not sun time? In times before calendars and clocks what
happened? Were the seasons the same as they are now, and who decided what
to call them?

I expect theses questions have been asked before but I have not seen
answers.

Jo