SEASONS
You will find a great deal on the changing seasons under the sections on plants towards the end of this website. What is discussed here is more to do with the more representative aspects of seasonal change.
Equinoxes and solstices:
Astronomically, the arrangement of the planes of the orbit of the Earth and its equator are such that the planes intersect at two times, the Equinoxes, when the length of the day and night are equal. Mid-way between these are the solstices, when the Sun is at its highest and lowest in the sky at mid-day. These times can be determined very accurately and, as they occur near the times when the seasons are changing, have been used to indicate the start of each season.
Thus for us in Europe:
Spring is deemed to start at the Vernal Equinox (near 20 March)
Summer at the Summer Solstice (near 21 June)
Autumn at the Autumn Equinox (near 23 September)
Winter at the Winter Solstice (near 22 December).
[Royal Museums of Greenwich]
Also see :
- Autumn index.asp?pageid=734373
- Winter index.asp?pageid=734376
- Spring index.asp?pageid=734375
- Summer index.asp?pageid=734374
CLIMATE CHANGE :
West Dunbartonshire Council's Climate Change Action Plan can be found here : https://www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/media/4320717/climate-change-action-plan.pdf
This Climate Change Action Plan sets out the immediate and longer term actions the Council will take to respond to the climate emergency, both in relation to mitigating and adapting to climate change. This plan will implement the Council’s Climate Change Strategy (2021) through a series of high-level actions for the short, medium and long term, setting out the need for action and a high level framework.
CHANGING THE CLOCKS :
To an immigrant to the UK, changing the clocks twice a year simply doesn't make sense. Popular explanations don't help. Kids going off to school in the mornings are usually taken there by parents or bus and many of them have to find their won way back in the gloom. The Guardian offers the following:
The ritual of changing the clocks is a relatively recent invention. Time was only standardised in the UK with the coming of the railways, and it was in 1880 that Greenwich mean time was adopted as a legal standard. The Summer Time Act 1916, in the middle of the first world war, introduced the concept of shifting the clocks twice a year to the UK. This was in response to Germany moving its clocks forwards in an attempt to save fuel for the war effort by reducing the need for lighting during longer, brighter evenings.
But the concept started before this. The BBC explains :
An American politician and inventor called Benjamin Franklin first came up with the idea while in Paris in 1784. He suggested that if people got up earlier, when it was lighter, then it would save on candles. But it arrived in the UK after Coldplay singer Chris Martin's great-great-grandfather, a builder called William Willett, thought it was a good idea too. In 1907, he published a leaflet called The Waste of Daylight, encouraging people to get out of bed earlier. Willett was a keen golfer and he got cross when his games would be cut short because the sun went down and there wasn't enough light to carry on playing.
Many countries have been reassessing the situation. The EU has voted to end to the practice, but few countries have followed that up. There have been campaigns over the years to end it in the UK too. Change.org (see link below) has a list of many points as to why changing the clocks is disruptive and not at all beneficial. They actively campaign for it to be ended. If you are simply perpelexed or just intrigued, read that interesting article.
FLOODING : See index.asp?pageid=734104
MIST & FOG : While mist or fog are not specific to any season, it occurs more as temperatures drop in autmn. In simplistic terms, mist is less dense than fog. If you want to find out more then see the link below to techiescientist. There is also a good desription on sciencequery. National geographic has a concise explanation.
Mist is tiny droplets of water hanging in the air. These droplets form when warmer water in the air is rapidly cooled, causing it to change from invisible gas to tiny visible water droplets.
Mist often forms when warmer air over water suddenly encounters the cooler surface of land. However, mist can also form when warm air from land suddenly encounters cooler air over the ocean.
Low morning mist over the Vale of Leven in early November.
That mist can form a low lying blanket. Whoever is in it thinks it is a damp dull cloudy day. Those above it see it as a bright sunny day. Such morning mists generally "burn off" as the warmth of the day progresses.
Steam fog (mist) rises from the Leven in early November. This indicates that, cold though the river is, the air above it still colder.
Early one November morning on the hill above Renton. Any thicker and this would be fog; a menace to motorists.
BBC : https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/37645854
CHANGE.ORG : An important point of view : https://www.change.org/p/home-secretary-abolish-british-summer-time-daylight-saving-keep-the-uk-on-greenwich-mean-time-gmt
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC : https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/mist/
SCIENCEQUERY : https://sciencequery.com/fog-vs-mist-differences-and-definitions/?utm_content=cmp-true
TECHNIESCIENTIST : https://techiescientist.com/fog-vs-mist/
