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When Does Winter Start???

By Doug Peters
July 22, 2010 Updated Dec 29, 2008 at 10:52 PM EDT

On December 18th, I received an e-mail from a viewer wondering why the Stormtracker Meteorologists were using winter terminology when it wasn’t “officially” winter. There are actually two start times for winter, December 1st and December 21st.

December 1st is the start of the meteorological winter. The meteorological winter is comprised of December, January, and February. These are the months used for keeping official weather records for the winter season.

December 21st (or approximately that date) is the day most of us believe winter starts. This is actually the start of the astronomical winter. This occurs when the sun’s angle and its heating capacity is at a minimum in the northern hemisphere. It ends at the vernal equinox around March 21.

Also, if you’ll remember back in November and in October, we had snowstorms. We used the same terminology for watches and warnings as we would in the dead of winter. A “Fall Storm Warning” just doesn’t have the same effect as a “Winter Storm Warning” when you’re about to receive a foot of snow…not to mention adding confusion into the mix.

I suppose that winter start times have their pluses and minuses. You could look at it like this… winter either starts earlier and ends earlier or winter starts later and ends later. Either way, winter still comes!

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