Axial Tilt Is The Reason For The Season

I don't think our local butcher does groundhog

The sausage for patties is ground hog.

Beer and chocolate.

I would consider Groundhog's Day a symbolic re-enactment of the classic rude awakening. There the somnolent marmot is rudely awakened from its slumber and thrust into the brash light of day (and a brazillion flashes) for the purposes of prognosticating on some old climatic wives' tale. If it is bright an clear, and the groundhog...usually some kind of marmot....sees his shadow, he is reputedly 'scared' and scurries back to his hole for more hibernation, and 'six more weeks of winter' ensues. If he doesn't see his shadow....well, I guess then we go directly to high summer. The superstituous hope very much for cloudy, overcast days. It has no bearing on the subsequent climatic conditions, so far as I can see...but there you are.

Its part of the controversy over when is the end of winter and when, consequently is the beginning of that same winter? Early February (Groundhog's Day is February 2) is roughly six weeks after the peak of winter, the Winter Solstice on December 21. Thereafter is early spring. This, of course means that summer begins earlier than June 21, which is the peak of summer, or Midsummer. That makes May Day, approximately six weeks earlier, the beginning of summer.

For some reason, here in the US, we've come to think of the Solstices and Equinoxes as the 'beginning' of that particular season. This is a separate understanding than that of the traditional European tradition, that those days are the peaks of the seasons; Midsummer, Midwinter, Midspring, Midautumn.

Am I splitting hairs...or, hares?

blimey. And you had room for dinner?!

Well, if you lived in a proper, civilized climate you might have just gotten your first snow last week, just in time for Christmas like we did. *looks smug*

Winter depends to a certain extent on the winds and ocean currents. Reverse the Gulf Stream and you have Winter all the year round in Britain. This year, the Jet Stream ran a few hundred miles south of its normal position and gave us a cold, wet summer. So, yes, the seasons are only nominal.

We subscribe to the Finnish version of winter here in Minnesota. (Though not having snow until January would be extremely unusual - first snow is anywhere from October to December here) I guess that's why so many Finnish people settled here when they immigrated - it reminded them of home.

I'll bet that many of them came by way of Astoria, Oregon. The town is so Finnish that they even enroll children who don't speak English in the home, but Finnish. It's also one of the wettest places in all of generally very wet western Oregon, stuck between the Pacific Ocean and the temperate rain forests of the Coast Range. It doesn't snow much there, though.

Canada...Minnesota and northern Michigan...same difference. Like upstate New York and backcountry Maine, they are just little chunks of Canuckistan embedded in the US.

So, did the Finns push the Norwegians and Swedes into the Dakotas and lower Michigan? Y'know, the ol' "There goes the neighborhood" when a Finn family moves in, and the prior Scandinavians decide it is time to move on to an even more desolate location?

And I thought that EVERYBODY in Finland knew about Astoria.

I know about Astoria otherwise (go Goonies!) but not about any Finnish population...

For ferro-equinological reasons I have been watching a web-cam in central Austria, there is virtually no snow there at all. Mordor is rejoicing in warm rain presently.

I didn't say I ate all 2 lbs of bacon. I had a few slices, then maybe 3 pancakes. Dinner was hours later, so yes, I had room. Mrs Shake made ham, mashed potatoes, corn, a green bean casserole, and we had some rolls.

It's still coming down like crazy here. Going out my front door was a challenge. The snow was over my knees.