The sun is setting too soon.

[Seldomski]

Louie Gohmert is on it. He's the congressman who proposed just "moving the orbit of the earth around the sun" to help stem global warming. I'm sure something like this could keep the sun from setting too soon.

Well, Futurama proposed doing it first in the episode Crimes of the Hot (guest star Al Gore as himself)

 

[RobSN]

In attempt to avoid the falling hammer, Imma steer this back towards astronomy/celestial calendars; I've always thought the obvious choice, if you must have DST ("you must, you must"), is change on the equinoxes. Otherwise, just eliminate it altogether.

And what is it with the American press that seems to have dictated that seasons start with the equinoxes and solstices? A Mid-Summer's Night Dream back in Shakespeare's time referred to mid-summer as being the solstice, and mid-winter would be the winter solstice (right around Christmas). Far more logical is to have the seasons on the cross quarter days (midway between the solstices and equinoxes) and start the seasons then ... so Spring Feb 2 to May 1, Summer May 2 to August 1, Autumn August 2 to October 31, Winter Nov 1 to Feb 1. I'd even accept a 15-30 lag to allow for heating and cooling lags, but Solstices and Equinoxes is nuts ...

 

[dbostedo]

And what is it with the American press that seems to have dictated that seasons start with the equinoxes and solstices?

I think we actually use a couple of common definitions. One is astronomical, and one is month based. (But both are based on general weather/temperature I suppose, since that's what the seasons are.)

I think the month based one aligns with school schedules (which were set originally to align with farming I think). June/July/August are "summer" break, and everything else falls from that. I think of things this way generally... winter is December/January/February, spring is March/April/May, and fall is September/October/November. (But I do sometimes think things like "technically, summer isn't over until Sept. 21st.)

Astronomical you've pointed out already - the solstices/equinoxes determine it. I think this is because they are fixed, and they line up pretty well with weather changes.

Far more logical is to have the seasons on the cross quarter days (midway between the solstices and equinoxes) and start the seasons then ... so Spring Feb 2 to May 1, Summer May 2 to August 1, Autumn August 2 to October 31, Winter Nov 1 to Feb 1.

How is that more logical?

It might be more logical if they didn't all have to be the same length, and we did it just by long term weather trends.

 

[RobSN]

How is that more logical?

Winter would be the period with the shortest days a/k/a the sun in the south. Summer would be the period with the longest days, sun in the north. Actually astronomers usually think this way rather than solstices/equinoxes.