Indian Summer，unseasonably warm weather in Fall

Photo Credit：Pixabay

What Is an Indian Summer?

You may hear the term used to refer to any period of unseasonably warm weather in autumn, but traditionally, “Indian summer” referred to something more specific. Here are the criteria for a true Indian summer:

• As well as being warm, the atmosphere during Indian summer is hazy or smoky, there is no wind, the barometer is standing high, and the nights are clear and chilly.
• A moving, cool, shallow polar air mass is converting into a deep, warm, stagnant anticyclone (high pressure) system, which has the effect of causing the haze and large swing in temperature between day and night.
• The time of occurrence is important: The warm days must follow a spell of cold weather or a good hard frost, but also be before first snowfall.
• The conditions described above also must occur between St. Martin’s Day (November 11) and November 20. For over 200 years, The Old Farmer’s Almanac has adhered to the saying, “If All Saints’ (November 1) brings out winter, St. Martin’s brings out Indian summer.”

We rather enjoy this description written by Sandy Griswold for the Omaha Sunday World-Herald in November 1922:

“I am enabled to say, however, that the characteristics of the season, when it appears in all its glory, are a mild and genial temperature, gentle southwestern breezes, unusual brightness of the sun, extreme brilliancy of the moon, a clear, blue sky; sometimes half hidden by a veil of gray haze; daybreaks redder than the splotch on the blackbird’s wing, and sunsets laden with golden fleeces, the wooded valleys aglow with the fires of richly tinted leaves, still clinging to the listless limbs, or lying where they have fallen….”

Why Is it Called an “Indian Summer”?

In parts of Europe, a similar phenomenon is known as an “Old Wives’ Summer” or “St. Martin’s Summer,” but how did the term “Indian summer” come to be? There are many theories, but none is confirmed.

Some say the term comes from the Algonquian people located in what is now the northeastern United States, who believed that the condition was caused by a warm wind sent from the court of their southwestern god, Cautantowwit (“great spirit”).

Similarly, another origin states that Native Americans would routinely use this brief period of warm fall weather to gather a final round of supplies before winter’s hold set in. November is the time to get one’s last harvest in before winter truly shows its head, so a short period of warm weather would be of note around this time.

Yet another claim involves European settlers in New England. Each year, they would welcome the arrival of cold, wintry weather in late October when they could leave their stockades unarmed. But then came a time when it would suddenly turn warm again, and the Native Americans would decide to have one more go at the settlers. “Indian summer,” the settlers called it.

Watch a video from Almanac Editor-in-Chief Judson Hale about the origin of Indian Summer.

 

At this moment, we are experiencing a few days of Indian Summer Time, usually ends around Halloween.

Indian Summer : Song by Brooks & Dunn

The tall weeds lay flat down
On the hard flat Kansas ground.
And a sad song in her head,
Kept blowin' round.

She barely even knew his name,
But she liked the way he played the game.
Everybody cheered,
When he scored that last touchdown

Indian Summer,
The wonder,
The hunger,
And the sound of distant thunder.
Indian Summer.

Tangled in a moment of truth.
Bottle of wine in a motel room.
Blue haze circled 'round
The cold gray moon.

While the wind chased the leaves outside.
Passion found a place to hide.
Late September heat,
Couldn't be denied.

Oh Indian Summer,
The wonder,
The hunger,
And the sound of distant thunder.
Indian Summer.

She never even finished school.
People like to talk, they can be so cruel.
Heard California was a place,
To start brand new.

So she left that dust bowl town.
Sometimes when the lone wind howls,
I wonder where we'd be,
If I never scored that last
Touchdown.

Summer.
The wonder,
The hunger,
And the sound of distant thunder.
Indian Summer.

Oh, whoa!

所有跟帖： 

• 唯美的意境，物以稀为贵，这种黄色因为短暂所以更难得的漂亮。 -妖妖灵- ♀ (0 bytes) () 10/24/2022 postreply 19:25:49

• 黄色总是靠近生命的核心：）例如蛋黄 -忒忒绿- ♂ (0 bytes) () 10/25/2022 postreply 06:08:00

• 今天更让我印象深的新闻是印裔当英国首相，哪一天印裔一定会当上美国总统 -妖妖灵- ♀ (0 bytes) () 10/24/2022 postreply 19:27:50

• 感觉英国首相职务有点象文学城某些论坛版主一样，没人愿意当，而有的论坛版主职务还要去争 -移花接木- ♂ (0 bytes) () 10/24/2022 postreply 19:33:57

• 英国首相不会有人愿意当吗？今天看CNN新闻，因为是保守党不到任期，所以，不用选举，这个印裔好幸运啊 -妖妖灵- ♀ (0 bytes) () 10/24/2022 postreply 19:38:36

• Truss已经当了，不也辞职了吗 -移花接木- ♂ (0 bytes) () 10/24/2022 postreply 20:21:19

• 我以为她是被迫辞职的 -妖妖灵- ♀ (0 bytes) () 10/24/2022 postreply 20:27:47

• 秋老虎：） -忒忒绿- ♂ (0 bytes) () 10/25/2022 postreply 06:05:00

• good to know. thank you for sharing:) -忒忒绿- ♂ (0 bytes) () 10/25/2022 postreply 06:47:00

• 加了一首Brooks & Dunn版本的Indian Summer歌, 以此为名的歌有好几个 -移花接木- ♂ (0 bytes) () 10/25/2022 postreply 07:09:30

• 学习了。现在好像倾向call it the second summer. To be 政治正确:) -甜虫虫- ♀ (0 bytes) () 10/25/2022 postreply 11:56:26

• 这两张照片非常像油画，是后期处理过吗？ 光线非常抓人，就和上图的月亮一样，夺人眼球。 学习了Indian summer。 -jianchi9090- ♀ (0 bytes) () 10/25/2022 postreply 17:26:25

• 这个是不是也用了滤镜？ -妖妖灵- ♀ (0 bytes) () 10/25/2022 postreply 18:16:04

• 不错的影像 -枫林晓- ♂ (0 bytes) () 10/25/2022 postreply 21:02:53

• 恭喜花董。首页进来，谢谢网管，Indian Summer，unseasonably warm weather 推荐成功 -梅雨潭- ♂ (0 bytes) () 10/26/2022 postreply 16:04:05