Changing Of The Seasons - Part Three

In the United States those of us that follow or study the weather we observe prefer to use meteorological seasons because fixed dates  allow for easier recording and comparison of weather and climate data.  The rest of the world tends to mark the astronomical seasons.

Which one you may prefer to use depends mostly-upon where you live.  According the the American Meteorological Society the hemispheres and coastal versus inland locations all play a role.  Thusly, for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere and are land-locked meteorological seasons are for frequently observed.  If you live in the southern hemisphere the impact of oceans plays a larger role on temperatures and weather.  Therefore, astronomical seasons are preferred.

Complicating this somewhat is the that, at least where I live, the earth has been warming following the retreat of the glaciers.  Only 10,000 years ago (a blink of an eye in geologic time) my location was buried beneath an ice sheet a mile thick.  So thick that the earth's crust continues to rebound from the weight of all that ice.

For those of us residing in the northern hemisphere a study in Geophysical Research Letters found that between 1952 and 2011(two generations) the seasons have shifted in length.  Winter has gone from 76 to 73 days, spring from 124 to 115 days, fall 87 to 82 days and summer from 78 to 95 days.  Yikes!

The same study implies that if the trend continues at the current rate by the time we get to 2100 summers could last about a half of an entire year while winters would shrink to only a couple of months.  Our seasons would look more like locations closer to the equator regardless of being arid or tropical.

I certainly won't be around to witness it if it happens but it's certainly interesting to ponder.