As such, specifying the solstices and equinoxes at “mid-points” for the seasons is utterly absurd. As someone who has studied astronomy, meteorology and climatology, I can say with confidence that my viewpoint is not as myopic as one such as Phil’s who defines just about everything in life in terms of his narrowed-down astronomical worldview. No room for interdisciplinary thinking for Phil!

I have analysed mean monthly temperatures for many cities in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and it turns out that the meteorological convention of defining summer as June-August, autumn as September-November, winter as December-February and spring as March-May (and the reverse for the SH) makes *far more sense* than Phil’s method OR the method of defining seasonal beginnings in terms of the solstices and equinoxes. In most localities where seasons are usually well-defined (i.e. the temperate regions), defining mid September as “summer” and yet defining mid June as “spring” (which occurs if using solstices as seasonal beginnings) is ridiculous in most temperate locations, since mid June is nearly always warmer, on average, than mid September. And using Phil Plait’s method, this discrepancy gets even *worse*.