FAQ

SeasonAlerts works out the season dates for a place you choose, and it can email you on the morning of the dates you tick. The list is the first day of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the summer and winter solstices, Midsummer, and Midwinter.

Astronomical seasons begin at the equinoxes and solstices. Those moments are the same everywhere. The calendar date is the local date in the place’s time zone. On the equator and north of it, summer begins at the June solstice. South of the equator, summer begins at the December solstice.

Traditional seasons are the seasons as they are counted locally. The control on the page is labeled Traditional. For most countries that means meteorological seasons, which start on the first of a calendar month. In the northern hemisphere those dates are 1 March, 1 June, 1 September, and 1 December. In the southern hemisphere they are 1 September, 1 December, 1 March, and 1 June.

A few places use another calendar. Ireland starts the seasons on 1 February, 1 May, 1 August, and 1 November. In the northern hemisphere, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau use the East Asian solar terms. A southern point in those places uses the southern meteorological calendar. In Traditional mode you can pick a different calendar from the list. A country with no entry of its own uses the meteorological calendar for its hemisphere.

Pick a capital, click the globe, or enter a latitude and longitude. The hemisphere follows the latitude: on the equator and to the north, northern; to the south, southern. The time zone is the one for that point.

In astronomical mode, each date is the local calendar day of the equinox or solstice, so the same event can fall on a different day in another time zone. In Traditional mode, the calendar follows the country when we have one, and otherwise the meteorological seasons for the hemisphere.

In astronomical mode, Midsummer is the middle of astronomical summer, halfway from the summer solstice to the autumn equinox. Midwinter is halfway from the winter solstice to the spring equinox. Which solstice that is depends on the hemisphere.

In Traditional mode, Midsummer is the summer solstice for most places: June in the north, December in the south. In the northern hemisphere, the United Kingdom and Ireland use 24 June, and Sweden and Finland use the Saturday between 20 and 26 June. Traditional Midwinter is the winter solstice: December in the north, June in the south.

Each event is a calendar date for the current year: the day and the month, not a time of day. The page has no year switcher. Calculated dates are worked out again for that year, and an equinox or solstice can fall on a different day next year. If you edit a date, that edit is saved for this year.

Yes. Every date can be edited. Tick Alert beside a date to be emailed that morning, and untick it to leave that event out. Sign in so the ticks and the edits are saved to your account.

A season alert is sent on the date you ticked, once it is 07:00 or later in that place’s time zone. The site checks once an hour, so the email goes out on the first check at or after 07:00 local time.

Yes. SeasonAlerts is free to use.

The Donate button is provided by Ko-fi, a third party.

Open Sign up and enter a username, your email, and a password of at least 10 characters. We email a confirmation link. It expires in 24 hours. Open the link to confirm the address, then sign in. Sign-in stays closed until the email is confirmed. If the message does not arrive, the check-your-email page can send it again.

Every season alert has its own unsubscribe link. You do not need to sign in. Opening the link shows a partly hidden copy of the address and an Unsubscribe button, and it does not change your settings until you press the button. Mail apps that unsubscribe in one click use the same link.

Unsubscribing turns season alerts off. Emails about the account still arrive, including confirmation, password reset, and confirming a new email address. To turn season alerts back on, sign in and tick Alert beside the dates you want.

On the account page, enter your current password and confirm the deletion. Deleting the account removes it and the data stored for it, including your saved place, alert choices, edited dates, email log, and any feedback you sent.

An account stores the name you sign up with, your email address, and a salted password hash. Saving the almanac also stores the place, time zone, season choices, which alerts are ticked, and any dates you changed. A cookie keeps you signed in. Stay signed in keeps it for 30 days. Otherwise the browser drops it when it closes.

A feedback note is kept with the account until you delete it. The privacy page describes what an account stores, including the approximate location and network details kept with a note.

Feedback is for signed-in members. Open Feedback after you sign in. A signed-out visit asks you to sign in first. The form sends a note to the administrators.

SeasonAlerts by Ravenum. Write to hello@seasonalerts.com.