Astronomical Or Meteorological – Autumn Begins This Month.

From today, September 1st, we can expect the commencement of overall colder weather, with mornings growing that bit darker, as autumn (The ‘Fall’, associated with the falling of leaves), once again makes its annual appearance.

Before the 16th century, ‘harvest’ was the term usually used to refer to autumn, and for obvious reasons.
The name ‘backend’, was once a common name used in rural areas for the autumn season and this name also has largely been eroded.

Here in Ireland, most people will mourn the loss of the warmer summer months, while others will find themselves forced into even greater poverty, in their efforts to put a warm fire in the grate, and the emergence/arrival of unwelcome, overpriced, electrical bills, from greedy, unsupervised, electrical service companies, which our present Irish government refuses to control.

Autumn starts in September, but the date will depend on whether you follow the astronomical calendar or the meteorological calendar.

Meteorological Calendar:
The meteorological calendar splits our year into four seasons, with each season made up of three months. Same meteorological seasons are defined as spring (March, April, May), summer (June, July, August), autumn (September, October, November), and winter (December, January, February).
Thus, if you follow the meteorological season, autumn begins today, September 1st and will end on November 30th.

Astronomical Calendar:
The astronomical calendar on the other hand, is based on the position of the Sun, in relation to our Earth’s rotational axis. In this case our autumn will starts on September 23rd next and will ends on December 22nd; leaving us with less than one month left of our summer sun, before we once again are forced to don our overcoats.
The autumn equinox marks the start of the season, so it will take place on September 23rd 2023, at 6:50am. During the autumn equinox, day and night are of roughly of equal length before the nights become increasingly longer than the days, until the spring equinox due Wed, March 20th, 2024, at 3:06am, when the pattern is slowly reversed with the weather slowly, but surely, warming up once again.