Summer Solstice on 21 Dec 11:12 UTC

[Dingo]

Today is the official first day of summer in Australia and has the longest daylight hours of the year.  See this for more information    

[kashi]

I thought Australia used the meteorological start of summer so the official first day of summer is always December 1.???

Some countries where the temperature lag is greater use the Western definition of seasons based on solstice to equinox. Interesting, didn't know that, just looked it up.

From your link the natural or "real" seasons according to the solstices and equinoxes are of different lengths because of the elliptical orbit of the earth. It's obvious when it is pointed out but I had never thought about it before. Good one.

[Dingo]

I think that Australia uses the first of the month that the season starts in.  So yes the first of December is the start of Summer in Australia for some unknown reason, maybe we just can't woek it out and the first is tooo easy ???   But the official day is as per the link I think 

[Dataman]

No. It's the Winter Solstice.  biggrin  You have it "upside down".  Big storm in the US last night with many feet of snow in the North country. It was 26F (-2 C) here this morning with rain coming around 10:00. At least it will warm up a bit.

[kashi]

Maybe we're both sideways.;D
-2 C, brrr. Been some warm nights here recently. Currently (2.30AM) it's 19.1 C.

I think it's standard practice in countries that use the meteorological seasons to start the seasons on the 1st of the month. "Under meteorological definitions, all seasons are arbitrarily set to start at the beginning of a calendar month and end at the end of a month. This meteorological definition of summer also aligns with the commonly viewed notion of summer as the season with the longest (and warmest) days of the year, in which daylight predominates."*

Countries that use the Western definition go from solstice to equinox.

*from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer

[veebee]

Also the day and time the world was "supposed to end" according to the Mayan Calender..lucky they went out of priny a while back !!

[Mysteron347]

Seasons begin and end when Mother Natures says they begin and end, not when it's convenient for some rule-obsessed official.

[kashi]

Yes of course, but Mother Nature's "hours of daylight" and Mother Nature's "daily temperature" just cannot agree. Which is why man came up with various definitions of the seasons.

Anyone who is a stickler for astrological based hours of daylight being the basis of the seasons can maintain summer starts in early November and ends in early February if they wish, but it won't affect the official start of summer in Australia which is December 1.

I do understand, when I was very young I felt the calendar year with leap years was a disgustingly inaccurate representation of time compared to Mother Nature's tropical year but very soon I realised that the calendar year was unlikely to be changed to please my preference for accuracy.

And even after all these years I still dislike "daylight saving". ;D

[veebee]

Leap years... who mentioned LEAP years ???!!!...

The "Leap Year" was, unfortunately, the Beginning of the end of my second appearance on the once Fantabulous show - "Sale of the Century!"...

The first time I was on it, I went not too bad, got one of the sale shop gifts and a bit of cash but nothing else...

the second time around, about 4 years later, I was BLITZING it - against an old lady who was into Belly dancing, and an even OLDER lady who just couldnt think quickly enough to get in there with the buzzer....

we were half way through the "Mad Minute" where they ask questions quickly for 60 seconds...the Question - "How many days in a leap year ?" -
BANG !!! I slapped the buzzer before Glen Ridge even finished, and in that instant between him saying "John ?" and me uttering my answer, I thought..."yes, I KNOW they want 366, but really there is simply 365 and a quarter days EVERY year, we just add one extra every four years to balance it up and ..

"356 !" I answered smugly thinking how clever I was.. then "MAAAAAAAP" ... the sound of the buzzer indicating a wrong answer and I KNEW what I said was wrong...  :hbang:

"OH F*CK !"  :furious:  I said out loud and banged my head on the buzzer in front of me...

CUT - - CUT ...the director stopped the taping and Glen Ridge and Nicky Buckley came over LAUGHING at me ! - even the audience we laughing, though the school teachers who were chaperonning the group of school kids werent impressed ...

We then had to re-tape the "Mad minute", with each person answering the same questions they did earlier including me answering the leap year question WRONG, and then a mad race to the end...but I couldnt think straight...couldnt answer anything any more..

[size=104pt]DAMN LEAP YEARS !!!!!![/size]

PS - I DID however come home with (actually they sent it a month later) a beautiful 4 place setting from Royal Doulton - the "Carlisle" setting, with hand painted gold embellishment etc - vproblem is I am too scared to eat off it !!

[WikiWill]

Well veebee, it's almost poetic that your world rank is 353 - you only have to slip by the number of contestants on the show and you can relive that magical almost-but-not-quite number of days!