Fifth season around the corner
October is usually the transitional autumnal month, starting out with summery green and ending with wintry grey. About mid month, we usually have a glorious display of colorful trees, starting in the mountains, and by the end of the month, finishing up in the lower elevations. Sometimes it even lingers into early November. This October has been different.
In fact, this whole year has been different, with our actual weather being anything but what is expected. We did have a good frost and freeze and usually after this we experience a pause in the inexorable advance of the fall season, when a throwback to summer comes and a period of pleasant weather prevails, with mild temperatures, light winds and a hazy atmosphere.
Meteorologists are generally agreed that the second summer or fifth season is brought on by the stagnation of a large high pressure or fair weather system that anchors itself to the Middle Atlantic region. Descending warm air aloft known as subsidence creates a temperature inversion with the warm air laying overtop some cool air at the surface.
This puts a lid on the atmosphere and prevents the normal upward venting and creates the haze that is usually part of this extra season. Warming, hazy and sunny days characterize Indian summer and one enjoys a relaxed feeling in the softness of the weather. It鈥檚 a floating period on nature鈥檚 calendar, coming anytime in October or November, and there may be a recurrence of the pleasant spells two or three times during the same autumn.
Many sections of the country experience conditions resembling Indian summer, but the Middle Atlantic and Ohio Valley, and in particular our own Southwestern Pennsylvania, are best known for the frequency of its occurrence. No one knows for sure where the actual term came from, but perhaps it was first noted in regions inhabited by Native Americans, or because the Native Americans first described it to Europeans or it had been based on the warm and hazy conditions when the harvest was gathered and Native Americans hunted.
The month of October produced more wet weather across the region with a total rainfall of 6.21 inches. Normal for the month is 3.63. In just the last three months, we are 13.67 inches above normal, and it is all this rain that is responsible for your lawn to continue to need mowing. It also probably has a lot to do with the delayed color season this year. Along with all the rain, the last few weeks have just been miserable with all the rain, clouds and cool weather. Where is Indian summer when we need it?