Category: seasons

An addendum to my previous writing about seasons….

I switched the weather app on my phone (Weatherbug, FWIW) from Fahrenheit to Celsius the other day. I expected to be surprised by the number: 8 degrees?! And that’s kinda mild? I don’t even. But expected.

But I hadn’t thought much about each degree being “bigger”, so that today’s forecast is 6C. That’s 6 for a high and 6 for a low. And I’m pretty sure it’ll be a bit warmer at 2pm than at 8am. Several of our mini-seasons feature very small variations between high and low temps, so that it’s pretty much exactly the same temperature, in Celsius, at any time of day or night.

Strange. Mostly, I just wish my weather app did decimal points, because I’m pretty sure I could feel the difference between 6.1C and 6.9C.

These are the seasons that I’m thinking of with longing…

Pre-Summer – as I said in my previous post, I’m not sure of the exact boundary of Warm Spring and Pre-Summer, but it’s basically June and the beginning of July. There will be days like summer, sunny and 70s, but also quite a bit of cooler (high 50s, low 60s) and even rainy weather. The neologism “Juneuary” may be used to describe the cooler stretches.

True Summer – starts usually the week after Independence Day and lasts until sometime around Labor Day. This is the most amazing season. Almost no rain, ever, and hardly a cloud in the sky. Occasionally gets up above 90, but usually sticks in the upper 70s and low 80s.

Dry Fall – summer fades down into this last of the bright seasons, starting around Labor Day and lasting until the rains show up: sometimes early October, but occasionally as late as Halloween. The evenings cool down quite a bit, possibly even with a first freeze, while the days remain somewhat warm: mid60s, and it can get as hot as summer. Dramatic clouds. A little bit of rain, but not much. (For me, the start of Dry Fall actually starts with a bit of rain in late August or early September, but then afterwards it gets nice again.)

And then the seasons start over again!

One of these days I’ll compile all of this into a single something or another….

As I muse over the distinction between Cold Spring and Warm Spring, I’m realizing that it’s been long enough that I’m not entirely sure of the difference — plus the last time those seasons came around I hadn’t really started on this little conceptual project. So I imagine I’ll want to do some revising in a few months! That said…

Cold Spring — March and April, warmer than Wet Winter, and now is when things start growing. For me in recent years, it’s when I first get going on the bike again, although I don’t know if that will be the case this year. Another season when day and night temperature are often less than 10 degrees apart. Plenty of rain, interspersed with some early nice days. Frost is rare but not impossible.

Warm Spring — May, basically. No more chance of frost, and the first days in the 60s. Can be very erratic…

As I write, I’m also wondering about the distinction between Warm Spring and Pre-Summer. I know all of these distinctions exist, but where the boundaries between all the other seasons are pretty clear in my head, these ones not so much.

(Another grouping: the Springs (Cold, Warm, Pre-Summer); the Summers (True Summer and Dry Fall), and the Winters (Wet Fall, Icy Winter, Wet Winter). Which is funny, because one of the things that I was excited about in moving from Southern California was getting actual fall, and this grouping drops Fall entirely.)

Maybe I’ll come back to this set later, and in my next post write about True Summer and Dry Fall. (The most wonderful time of the year!)

It occurred to me after writing the previous post that one could also split my longer list of seasons into just two. For many years I’ve mentally split the year into the dark and light halves, to be clever one could call them the SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and bright seasons.

SAD: Wet Fall, Icy Winter, Wet Winter, Cold Spring

Bright: Warm Spring, Pre-Summer, True Summer, Dry Fall

It’s interesting that even though the days of Cold Spring are the same or even slightly longer than Dry Fall, I’d still group it with the SAD seasons over the Bright ones. Something about the amount of cloud cover, I think.

I’ve been continuing to think about my mental map of the seasons.

Wet Fall — usually starts at the beginning of November, but can start as early as mid-October or as late as mid-November. Lasts definitely through November and well into December. Daytime temps start in the mid50s and gradually decline to the mid40s. Rain. And if not rain, then overcast. These are the days for which the region is famous. Occasional overnight freezing, but for the most part the temperature is remarkably constant, drops less than 10 degrees overnight. Most likely dramatic weather is the Pineapple Express — warmer wet weather that comes from the tropics, often with wind, usually with flooding.

Icy Winter — usually starts mid-December; if there’s a “real” snow in December, that’s the start. Otherwise, right around the solstice. Lasts through January, occasionally into early February. Daytime temps range from mid30s to low40s, with most overnights right around freezing, but can be quite a bit colder. A stretch of overnights in the low 20s and daytimes right around freezing isn’t uncommon. If we get any noticeable snow, it’s during this season. Can have stretches of very bright clear days, which are almost always also very cold. This weather often comes with freezing fog.

Wet Winter — usually starts after the last chance of “real” snow at the beginning of February, and lasts through the last stretch of really cold weather in mid-March. This looks a lot like Wet Fall, but less dark only because the days are longer. Gradually warms up out of the 30s and up into the low 50s. Almost always includes a “fake out” day that feels like spring, usually in mid-February. There WILL be a frost after that date.

This is mostly based on my personal experience, so it’s really only good for Olympia and Tacoma. YMMV in other parts of the Pacific NW.

I’ve been working on this idea for a local season calendar for maybe a year or two now, musing on it in the back of my head:

Dry Fall (Sept-Oct)
Wet Fall (Nov-early Dec)
Icy Winter (late Dec-Jan)
Wet Winter (Feb – early Mar)
Cold Spring (late Mar – Apr)
Warm Spring (May – early June)
Pre-Summer (late June-early July)
True Summer (late July – August)

I think it captures some of the nuances that people miss and forget around here. (Like the fact that we’ve gotten quite a bit of sun lately, and it’s not really that unusual. Icy Winter often features very cold sunny days.)

One of these days I’ll get around to elaborating on it some more.