When Does Each Season Start Jun 2026

This aligns with ancient Celtic traditions and makes intuitive sense. By the time the Winter Solstice arrives on Dec 21, the natural world has been dormant for weeks. To call that the start of winter feels like a bureaucratic joke.

Shortest day of the year; sun at its lowest altitude. Starts: December 20–23 (Northern) / June 20–22 (Southern) when does each season start

There are two primary ways to define the start of each season: the method, based on Earth's position relative to the sun, and the meteorological method, which follows the calendar and annual temperature cycles. Seasonal Start Dates (Northern Hemisphere) This aligns with ancient Celtic traditions and makes

When each season starts depends on whether you follow the calendar, based on the Earth's orbit, or the meteorological calendar, which uses set dates for consistent record-keeping. The Two Ways to Define Seasons Shortest day of the year; sun at its lowest altitude

Because nature is messy, but data needs to be clean. The astronomical seasons (based on the Earth's tilt) vary in length between 89 and 93 days. This makes comparing seasonal statistics—like "Was this the hottest summer on record?"—incredibly difficult.

In this system, the seasons are defined strictly by the Gregorian calendar and the annual temperature cycle. The year is sliced neatly into four chunks of three months each: