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Summer is a
season,
defined by convention in
meteorology as the whole months of
June,
July, and
August, in
the Northern hemisphere, and the whole months of
December,
January,
and
February, in the Southern hemisphere. In some Western countries, the
first day of summer (in the Northern hemisphere) falls either on, or around,
June 21
or on June 1
(the former is the astronomical start; the latter, the meteorological).
Summer is commonly viewed as the season with the longest (and warmest) days
of the year, in which the daylight predominates, through varying degrees. In
the northern latitudes, twilight is known to last at least an hour,
sometimes leading to the famous white nights found in St. Petersburg and
Scandinavia.
It is also called the season of
the midnight sun near the north pole as well in Iceland.
For many people in the West,
the seasons are considered to start at the equinoxes and solstices in an
"astronomical" sense. However, due to the phenomenon of
seasonal lag, the "meteorological" start of the season precedes, by
about three weeks, the start of the "astronomical" season. This time
differential keeps the "meteorologial" definition more symmetrically
centered around the warmest part of the year than the "astronomical one" is.
Today, the "meteorological" definition is most common, but in the past the
"astronomical" definition was more frequent, and some people today still
prefer it. Elsewhere, however, the solstices and the equinoxes are taken to
mark the mid-points, not the beginning, of the seasons. In Chinese
astronomy,
for example, summer starts on or around
May 6,
with
the jiéqì
(solar
term) known as 立夏 (lì xià), i.e. "establishment of summer".
In most countries children are
out of school during this time of year, although dates vary. Some begin in
June, although in the UK, from the ages of 5-16, school ends in the middle
of July.
Summer is also the season in
which many fruits,
vegetables, and other
plants
are in
full growth.
Summer in popular culture
In the American movie industry,
summer is often nicknamed the "season of the blockbuster". It is the most
profitable and highly competitive time of the year in which a large number
of big-budget movies (usually
action or
sci-fi) are released. Because of this, the summer is often viewed by
both critics and audiences as the season of some of the most successful
movies as well as some of the most notorious flops. The "Summer Movie
Season" spans from the first week of May until the beginning of September,
the weekend of the American
Labor Day.
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