Season

INTRODUCTION

A season is a particular climatic type, at any place, associated with a particular time of the year.

The change and seasons is mainly due to the change in attitude of the Earth's axis in relation to the sun, and hence the position of the sun in the sky at a particular place. 


During May, June, and July, the Northern Hemisphere is exposed to more direct sunlight because the hemisphere faces the Sun. The same is true of the Southern Hemisphere in November, December, and January.

The differences between the seasons are more marked inland than near the coast, where the sea has a moderating effect on the temperatures.

Illumination of the earth at each change of astronomical season

In temperate latitudes four seasons are recognized: spring, summer, autumn (fall), and winter. The northern temperate latitudes have summer when southern temperate latitudes have winter, and vice versa.

Tropical regions have two seasons - wet and dry. The belt of rain associated with a convergence of trade winds moves north and south with the Sun, as do the dry conditions associated with the belts of high pressure near the tropics.

Monsoon areas around the Indian Ocean have three seasons - the cold, the hot and the rainy - because of the influence of the oceanic water body surrounded at its north end by Asia.

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India's Hindu calendar has six seasons: spring, summer, monsoon, autumn, pre-winter and winter.

Ancient Japan had 72 seasons, lasting around five days each.

The spring and autumn equinoxes are the only days when the Sun rises directly due east and sets due west in the northern hemisphere.

THE SEASONS

The earth's “axial tilt” is 23.5 degrees. Uranus, by comparison, spins at 98 degrees.  Earth’s four seasons are comparatively mild and, thanks to our proximity to the sun, relatively brief.  Much of Uranus, by contrast, spends winters in permanent darkness and summers under constant sunlight. And those seasons last decades. 

Commonly we think of March, April and May as the spring months, but astronomically, spring officially begins on the spring equinox.

We have used the word 'spring' for the season since the 16th century. Before that it was used for centuries to apply to the source of a river.

Before we called it spring this season was known as Lent or Lenten.

Persephone was the Greek goddess of spring. She spent winters as Queen of the Underworld but returned in spring to preside over rebirth.

The earliest known use of the term 'spring-cleaning' was in 1857.

Every year, spring gets 30 seconds to one minute shorter in the Northern Hemisphere.

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The word 'Summer' comes from the Old English name for the season "sumor."

Until the 17th century, autumn (or fall) was most often referred to as “harvest”.

In Greek myth, autumn was a sign of the grief of harvest goddess Demeter at her daughter Persephone being abducted to the Underworld.

Autumn” and “column” are the only common words in English ending in -umn.

Winter’ comes from the Germanic ‘Wintar’ which itself comes from the root ‘Wed’  meaning 'wet' or water'.

During winter the sun is low in the sky has less heating effect because of the oblique angle of incidence and because of sunlight as further to travel through the atmosphere

Sources Daily Express, Hutchinson Encyclopedia