how do the weather people know what time spring starts.?

Question

I saw on our local news the exact time spring is to start tonight.

Answer 1

Seasons start according to the sun's position. So with new technology they can take figure out when the earth will be in a specific position. Thats how they figure out the exact time.

Answer 2

The concept of four seasons is a northern European artefact which has been spread around the world. There are four seasons in northern Europe and these were determined by the people watching the behaviour and migration of animals, the flowering and fruiting of plants and the weather. Much later, Copernicus, Keppler etc determined that the earth was tilted on its axis and orbiting the sun which gave an explanation for seasonal variation.

There are different seasons in different cultures. While northern Europe has four, the people of the Kimberley in northwest Australia have five as do the people in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria. The people of the Darwin/Kakadu area have six seasons as do the people of northeast New South Wales. The Wik people of Cape York Peninsula have eight seasons but the people of the central desert have two. These are all named seasons identified in exactly the same way as the northern European four - the weather and the behaviour of plants and animals.

This means that the number and duration of seasons is purely human artefact. This also means that you can start the seasons whenever you like. In Australia, where we don't have four seasons of three months' duration each anywhere in the country, we use the northern European terminology because it helps break up the year. We start the four seasons on the first of the month. There is absolutely no reason not to even in Europe and North America. Starting on the first of the month makes the calculation of seasonal statistics much easier.

You will find pompous people everywhere claiming the seasons start on equinoces and solstices as though this were holy writ. It isn't. It is a human convention. When the seasons were first named, they had no official starting time, they started when they started - which makes a lot of sense.

Answer 3

It happens at the same times every year, the equinoxes and solstices. Spring arrives when the sun is directly over the equator, the same as fall; these are the equinoxes. Summer and winter arrive with the longest and shortest days respectively. This happens because the sun is the farthest north or the farthest south it will go before turning around. These are the winter and summer solstices.

Answer 4

As people have said before, it is just a convention set according to Sun's position. By the same logic, summer starts on 21st July, autumn starts on 23rd September and winter starts on 21st December.
The start of spring have some cultural aspects as well. Iranian people celebrate Norouz (Newroz) - the start of the spring - on March 21st, which is the vernal equinox.

Answer 5

Spring begins at the time of the vernal equinox, which is when the center of the Sun crosses the equator moving southward. The time can be easily calculated by astronomers and passed on to the media.

Answer 6

Cause we're good...lol

It's the way the Earth Rotate, that is why we have the Seasons.
when it is summer the Earth has rotated upward towards the sun. Winter is further away from the sun. Then Fall and Spring is in between.

Answer 7

they just guess to the weather. they just make sure that spring starts when they say it's going to start. we don't want them to start spring when it's still snowing.

Answer 8

technically speaking, Meteorologist consider March 1st as the first day of spring

the way you are asking though is when the sun when be directly over the equator on its way to the tropic of cancer giving the northern hemisphere summer.

Answer 9

I think they guess in all the weather.

Answer 10

they look at their watches and randomly pick a time