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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Laura Ferguson

When does Autumn officially start? And why are there two dates?

We were starting to get cosy, the mustard-coloured jumpers and burgundy scarves were being looked out and we had put away the sun cream for another year.

But it looks like we may have spoke too soon! It may be nearing the end of September but Glasgow is currently caught in a bit of a mini-heatwave .

Temperatures were hitting highs of 23C yesterday and are set to stay that way for this weekend.

And technically, summer isn't over just yet - but it's definitely having its swan song.

According to the Met Office, autumn begins on September 23, which is this Monday.

It will end on December 22, which marks the beginning of winter.

However, the Met Office has said this is only the 'astronomical autumn' - which is defined by the Earth's axis and orbit around the sun.

It turns out there's a whole different way of looking at the seasons, which is called 'meteorological autumn'

The Met Office describes this as "splitting the seasons into four periods made up of three months each. These seasons are split to coincide with our Gregorian calendar, making it easier for meteorological observing and forecasting to compare seasonal and monthly statistics."

So according to this method, we're already well into autumn, which would have begun on September 1 and ended on November 30.

Whichever way you look at it, we're definitely well past summer (even if the current sunshine seems to say otherwise). So if you're someone that loves crunchy leaves, pumpkin spiced lattes and Halloween, then don't worry - we're nearly there!

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