Say Goodbye To Summer And Hello to Autumn

Thursday, September 22, 2022, at 9:03pm U.S. Eastern Daylight Time, marks the official end of summer and start of autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere—the Autumnal Equinox, the date that daylight and darkness are equal.

This week in my little corner of the world, we've had a momentary brief reprieve from this horrible summer. But, unfortunately, it's temporary and definitely short-lived. The forecast shows the temperatures in the mid to upper 90s with humidity, expected to reach triple digits again by Tuesday. The start of autumn brings on anticipation of cooler, crisp days and the disappearance of the retched humidity of summer. That change to cooler, drier air brings a renewed vigor, a revived energy to replace the lackluster feeling resulting from the summer heat and humidity...at least for me. (Do you get the impression that I don't function well in heat and humidity?)

Just as I love the renewal of life in the spring—bright green new leaves on the trees, colorful flowers, the awakening of nature from winter's long hibernation—I also love the change of the leaves to their brilliant array of fall colors in autumn. This year has been below average rainfall, so I'm not expecting a very colorful autumn. I recently moved (same city, new house) and now have two large oak trees in my front yard and two large oak trees in my back yard that offered some shade from the summer heat. And across the street from me is a small park-like area of grass and trees, a small 'pocket park.' I'm hoping for some fall color views.

I can say with all sincerity that I'm happy to welcome the end of summer 2022. Oh, yeah…also happy to welcome the start of fall. But it's mostly the end of this year's summer's heat and humidity that thrills me. The summer of 2022 was worse than last year, with most of July and August producing triple digit temperature days and high humidity that went along with those triple digit temperatures to produce dangerous heat warnings. Ugh!

Welcome autumn...I'm thrilled to see you! But, on the other hand, I'm hoping for a mild winter unlike the extreme summer we had.