1 year, 7 months ago
What causes Indian Summer?
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M$1 Answer
There are temperature variations all year long. Swings of 20 degrees over the seasonal average occur all the time, depending on weather conditions. It's particularly noticeable in the US, which is between the very warm tropical air and the very cold arctic air, and swings in the jet stream can change the weather by 20 degrees in a single day.
So at some point in autumn you get a particularly cold patch, and people treat it as the beginning of the new season. Later, things often revert to the mean and even swing a bit hotter, which they dub "Indian summer". During the peaks of the summer and winter you get fairly long periods with fairly consistent temperatures, and during spring and autumn you get faster changes. On average, it looks just like a plain sine wave, which looks flat at the top and bottom (winter and summer) and sharp in the centers (spring and autumn).
Which means you'll always get some warm patches during the cooling trend. It's never as hot as the peak of summer, but warmer than seasonal, and they call it Indian Summer. It's going to happen every year, often more than once. The warm and cool trends continue even in the peaks, but since it's already "a lot hot" or "a lot cold" you don't think to associate it with the previous season.
So at some point in autumn you get a particularly cold patch, and people treat it as the beginning of the new season. Later, things often revert to the mean and even swing a bit hotter, which they dub "Indian summer". During the peaks of the summer and winter you get fairly long periods with fairly consistent temperatures, and during spring and autumn you get faster changes. On average, it looks just like a plain sine wave, which looks flat at the top and bottom (winter and summer) and sharp in the centers (spring and autumn).
Which means you'll always get some warm patches during the cooling trend. It's never as hot as the peak of summer, but warmer than seasonal, and they call it Indian Summer. It's going to happen every year, often more than once. The warm and cool trends continue even in the peaks, but since it's already "a lot hot" or "a lot cold" you don't think to associate it with the previous season.
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