The Groundhog and the Equinox

My friend Kirby is getting all uppity about the prolonged cold spell up here in the frozen tundra. Coincidentally George Stroumboulopoulos did a bit about this on last night's - The Hour (watch from 3:40 to 6:00).

Unfortunately, Kirby's rant got me thinking about the weather and the seasons. I live in a place (Edmonton) where the weather is not constrained by anything so arbitrary as the date on a calendar. Up here, anything goes, anytime. It is quite possible to experience *every* type of weather there is, all within the span of a long lunch. It keeps one on one's toes, er ... flippers.

Like Kirby, I too grew up on the Canadian prairie. I actually grew up even farther north than Kirby did (by about half a block), so I feel that makes me more qualified than he to speak out on this issue. I've never had much of a problem with Groundhog day, but something that has always bugged me (along a similar vein), is the notion that the winter solstice marks the *first day* of winter. Sorry, but in my books "Christmas-time" is the *middle* of winter. Always has been, always will be (... in this hemisphere anyways).

If we take it that the solstices and equinoxes mark the *middle* of the seasons, then the start of each season would be about 6 weeks before the corresponding celestial event. That means the beginning of each season corresponds pretty closely to the start of the months of May, August, November, and February (which, on account of my tusks, I am forced to pronounce as "febbie-airy"). Which is why Groundhog day makes some sense to me. I believe that some wise people "way back when" were thinking along these lines ...

"So does spring start at the beginning of February, or the middle of March?"
"I dunno ... I'm good with either one I guess."
"Well, what do we tell people?"
"Hmmm ... I've got it!! We'll get a groundhog, see ..."

I'm sure you can see where it went from there. It ended like this:

"So he sees his shadow, and then what? It's spring?"
"Nope. Winter, for 6 more weeks."
"Oh, ok. Yeah that works."
"Yep. And Toronto sucks."

And so ever thus it has been.