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IF YOU’RE ONE of those charlatans who thinks it starts in March, I can only assume you are generally untrustworthy and probably like Barry’s Tea.
But really. What qualifies as the ‘first day’ of spring can often be a point of argument between people. Is it the start of February? Or the start of March? If you ask me, there’s only one proper answer, and it involves astronomy. But there are a couple of different reasons behind different dates.
When does Midsummer’s Day fall? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not in the middle of spring, autumn, or winter. Midsummer’s Day is based around the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. As Midsummer’s Day and the solstice fall in the middle of summer, and because each season lasts three months, we can deduce that summer lasts from 1.5 months before to 1.5 months after Midsummer’s Day/solstice.
The summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere occurs around 21 June, and is opposed by the winter solstice, which takes place in December (again, usually the 21st, six months later). So, if the summer begins one and a half months before this, then we find that summer begins about a week into May, in astronomical terms. We know that each season lasts three months, so therefore, spring starts at the beginning of February.
The year and its seasons can be divided out along a circle, which resembles the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Earth’s rotational axis is tilted slightly, so the point where the northern hemisphere is tilted most towards the Sun is the summer solstice, and where it’s tilted away is the winter solstice.
The above diagram shows the quarter days (two solstices and two equinoxes) as positions of the Earth along its orbit around the Sun. Four more points – each located halfway between each Earth in the diagram – are called cross-quarter days, and were particularly important in pre-Christian and Celtic Ireland. If the Quarter days above marked the middle of the season, then the cross-quarter days marked the beginning of the season.
It makes astronomical sense to use the equinoxes and solstices as markers for the middle of the seasons, as it means that spring and autumn will receive the same amount of solar radiation over three months, where summer and winter will be “opposite”, each one receiving a maximum or minimum of solar radiation. It’s nice and symmetric, and symmetry is good in science.
So why do some people say that spring starts in March? This is where meteorology comes in. Because of the way climate works, weather and temperature experiences a ‘lag’ of about six weeks. This means that the three warmest months of the year, ie meteorological summer, arrive about six weeks after astronomical summer.
Average temperatures, from Met Éireann
As you can see above, the warmest months from a meteorological perspective are June, July, and August, whereas we have found earlier that maximum solar radiation from the Sun occurs on May, June, and July.
There you have it. If you’re a meteorologist, spring begins on 1 March. If you’re an astronomer, it’s 1 February (or a week-ish later if you’re particularly pedantic). I’m an astronomer, so I have no doubt that spring has well and truly sprung and the lambs are frolicking in the fields as we speak. Ahem.
Conor Farrell is an avid science enthusiast and studied physics with astronomy at Dublin City University. He now works with Astronomy Ireland to promote all things space-related to a wider audience. In his spare time he writes about science and current affairs, and can be followed on Twitter at @conorsthoughts. Read more of Conor’s columns here.
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‘We will continue to learn from these grave errors’ – RTÉ Director General”
You wont be around to learn from these grave errors, if the t.v licence fee payers have their way.
Is it time to shut down (the very expensive) RTE?
You cannot shut down the national broadcaster. There are many reasons why, public service being the main reason. A lot of what is broadcast will never be commercially viable in the private sector but is in the public interest. There are also various dooms day reasons scenarios in which we need one. If there was a war, major disaster or a number of other reasons that the government need to keep the public informed an have the platform to do this.
But I can agree with the need to streamline it and make it more economical, moving it away from the high paying civil service style organisation it is/was. But for the sake of our sanity, we do not want a TV industry that runs on the cheap, budget, lash it out model. Rte does a lot of things wrong but it also does a lot of very good programming that wouldn’t be possible in the private sector over here..
Sorry did the government just fine rte 200,000 of taxpayers money? Firstly that’s not even a years worth of Joe Duffy and secondly don’t they get their money from the government anyway.
Why is Noel Curran still director general? His position is completely untenable! A mistake of this magnitude can have no other outcome! He’s either stupid or incompetent! I
You will learn nothing from this RTE, you are a shoddy operation run by a very self-interest driven closed shop! You destroyed a mans name but would never make the same mistake with one of your own! I have no love for the Catholic church, just honest decent values of which you hold few!
It’s a crap station with a sub standard programme, so cut off the head of the snake
They don’t learn – Derek Mooney should be Head Of Marketing for the Northern Ireland Enterprise Board as he has done everything in his power to promote it since he started in RTE( a taxpayer funded station). He has admitted on air to shopping fortnightly for food, clothes, household goods, and furniture. I am surprised the advertisers keep advertising with the station as they actively promote job losses through shopping over the border. I hope when he needs a Garda, Fire Brigade, Hospital or Ambulance he rings the people whose jobs he supports. I wish he would get a job up north also as he earns too much down here from his different income streams – 1 man 1 job. Derek has how many different shows ? His greedyness and disrespect for the people who pay his wages is insulting and RTE have to have some responsibility in appointing him to other more lucrative roles in Montrose.
what fine for dropping the ball on the banking and property bubbles? lazy journalism won’t go away with a few trainings and a couple of resignations
Why is their no uproar about this. A man was accused of being a sex offender it might have being anybody thats reading this article. Mr.Noel Curran I call on you to resign.
How did he keep his job
Noel, I know something that you don’t.
Further details by searching in Google for ‘Windle stops swindle’
Cheers
Super Grass
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