Today is the start of climatological summer, which is defined as June through August. However, you can also define it in other ways. In a study released today by Brian Brettschneider (@Climatologist49 on Twitter, definitely someone you should follow if you appreciate climatology), he showed using past data that the length of summer is actually increasing compared to what we experienced in the past. In much of the Southeast, it is now about a week longer than it used to be. Similarly, winter is about a week shorter than in the past, as temperatures across the US have warmed. Good news if you like summer (like me) but bad news if you like cold weather or need chill hours to set fruit. Good news if you want a longer growing season (different crop varieties or double-cropping) but bad news if you hate mosquitoes and other insect pests and crop diseases.
Read the article in the Washington Post at https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/06/01/summers-are-growing-longer-due-climate-change-while-winters-dramatically-shrink/ to see how he did the analysis.
