Seasons South and North

Seasons and Months Around the World - Keeping Track

 

I find that, as I write more blogs about the different seasons around the world, keeping track of what is going on where becomes more difficult. So, I thought I'd put together a little chart to help.  It gives a sampling of locations in the northern hemisphere, along the equator, and in the southern hemisphere, with what seasons they experience for any given month.

I would have liked to put in some drawings, put it is all ready so dense, that I thought they would make it too hard to read. I wanted to keep it A4 size so that readers can download and print it:

Download Chart of Seasons and Months Around the World

I might do a much larger one some day, a poster perhaps, so that I can put in some illustration.  

I also think it might be a nice idea to do more charts of other aspects of seasons around the world. I do hope this will be helpful.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Marega - The Dry Season

Early, early in the morning, before dawn , the southern hemisphere star known as Canopus or Naka will soon be visible. Then the baobab (Adansonia digitata) trees will begin to lose their leaves.

(pitcure from www.photobucket.com)

As the signs accumulate, it is sure that, any day now, the season, Marega, will begin in southern Africa. Marega is a winter, and there will be snow on the mountains in Lesotho, but much of the high plateau area (the  provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Guateng in South Africa, and the southern regions of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique)  it is a time of cool dryness. Days are bright and crisp and rainless. Nights are cold. 

This is the season during which all green disappears and the veld becomes brown. Some rivers will dry up; animals will gather closer than is comfortable around water. Among people, it is a time when the hoeing will begin, and farmers will prepare their fields for planting maize in July and August, when the rains may begin again.

Compare Trees in May

In Europe, it is late spring. Roses are blooming, trees are in leaf. It is a time of plenitude in extreme. In southern Africa, it is now the dry season -- Marega -- and all will become more and more parched until August, when the rains will return. To cope with the long dry seasons, the baobab can store thousands of litres of water in its trunk. An oak needs lots of water, as much as 200 liters per day. 

Download Trees in May

Looking at the silhouettes of trees helps to focus on their shape and fullness. Silhouettes are great fun to try to make. Older children can try to cut the shape of a local tree - in leaf or not - from black paper. Younger children can draw with black crayon or charcoal on paper.

©2009, Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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