Indian Summer/Second Summer
2 min read
By: Caleb Shaulis
“Indian summer”, also known as “second summer” is a period of time that usually comes in mid to late autumn. It usually occurs between November 11th and November 20th. The weather is extremely warm during the day and extremely cold at night.
For it to be considered a true Indian Summer it has to last seven days minimum, be after the Fall Equinox, and be at least 70 degrees or higher. The name Indian Summer is believed to come from American settlers that mistook sun rays piercing the hazy air for Native American campfire smoke. The summer is also called St. Martin’s Summer since the summer usually occurs the week before St. Martin’s Day. According to phrases.org, The weather event was first recorded by an American farmer in 1778. This warm spell during the 1830s began to be used figuratively to describe any late blooming followed by a steep decline.
Others speculate that the name Indian Summer comes from where the Native Americans lived, or that Native Americans had described this phenomenon to European settlers. Some believed it to be called Indian Summer from attacks during the hazy days before winter sets in. According to Powwow.com Native Americans believed the warm weather came from a warm wind sent by The Creator Cautantowwit (kiehtan). Some believed during that warm spell is when Native Americans harvested their crops. Under a prejudice view Europeans and Americans did not trust the Native Americans due to the attacks. The term Indian during this time was applied to anything that was false or fake, thus the phrase Indian Summer was a way to describe Fool’s Summer.
The term Indian Summer was removed from the glossary officially in October 2020. Indian Summer occurs when a shallow polar air is stagnate and becomes a high pressure, warm center. The center is characterized by strong low temperature level inversions that produce stable stratification. This results in smoke and dust to be concentrated near the ground causing a haze. This event is known as weather singularity among meteorologists. In other countries they call the event differently depending on which country people are from. In Sweden it is called “Brittsommar” and in Norway, Finland it is called “Crone’s Summer”.
Indian Summer is a warm spell after a severe cold spell usually occurring on November 11th through the 20th. Many believe that the name came from when the Native Americans attacked American settlers. People shouldn’t relate a time with a time of war, but a time to enjoy the extra warm weather and go out and do something before winter hits.
Siting: almanac.com Farmersalmanac.com Phrases.org Treehugger.com Powwows.com BBC.com Spectrumlocalnews.com Wordorigins.org
