Sept. 22 marks the start of astronomical fall, while Sept. 1 signals the beginning of meteorological fall. AccuWeather's Tony Laubach explains why there are two different definitions of the season.

There are two different definitions for the start of fall: meteorological and astronomical. Meteorological fall always begins on the first day of September, while astronomical fall's start varies each year, depending on the equinox.

The reason for the difference is primarily for ease of record-keeping and data analysis in the meteorological community. Using fixed dates for meteorological seasons allows for consistent tracking of weather records and statistics, whereas astronomical seasons can shift by a day or two each year, complicating data management.

Why there are two different fall seasons

we're now in meteorological fall. Yes, it does. Accuweather's autumn Anthony law back. I love this. I'm sure he wrote it himself. Okay, he's live from Denver colorado to explain why we see two different starts to fall. Yeah, I absolutely did write that. I'm so glad you said it. Thank you autumn Anna. You made my morning. Yes, it is the start of meteorological fall. What on earth does that mean? You might be asking, well, who really cares, right? Any excuse to start fall is a good one. But this particularly makes sense, especially if you are in the scientific community, the meteorological community. And let me show you why today, September 1st, it's always September 1st. It is always the start of meteorological fall. If you look at when fall starts this year, it starts on September 22nd. And that only happens sometimes, usually about half the time. But nonetheless, there's a variation in when astronomical fall starts versus when meteorological fall starts. And the reason we have the meteorological fall that starts on the 1st of September is for number keeping purposes. It's to make the spreadsheets easier to keep track of when we talk about records during the fall season. The problem if we use the astronomical fall, for instance, is say you have a record that falls on, let's say this year, September 22nd. That could change. If you got a record say that falls on September 21st, when sometimes the fall equinox happens, that could mean that for that year your records in the fall. The following year, September 21st, could easily be still a summer day. So I know that that seems kind of nitpicky if you're thinking about it in terms of like, why does that make sense? It does. Try writing a spreadsheet that mathematically has an equation that settles exactly when the fall starts astronomically. September 1st, much, much easier. That always starts on midnight. And that's the other part too, is fall doesn't always start at the same time every year. So technically, you could get all over the place with those numbers. So really, it is just for a bookkeeping thing for the most part. It allows us as meteorologists, climatologists, folks that keep numbers for weather, data, records, all that kind of stuff. It allows us to keep it straight for the seasons. And that's why meteorological fall starts on September 1st. Meteorological winter, December 1st. Meteorological spring, March 1st. Meteorological summer on July 1st. Wait, March, April, May, yeah, no, June 1st. I lied. See, it's Monday on Labor Day, folks. My brain is laboring trying to figure out all these numbers. But that's what it comes down to. It is numbers, and it makes things easier for the record-keeping. But a lot of folks, we have different triggers in terms of what we start fall on. For some, it's the start of football season. For me, it's the start of pumpkin spice season. Fortunately, this year, temperatures kind of felt more like fall, though we are going to ramp up here in northern Colorado as we get into the week. So still got that summertime feel. So while it doesn't technically feel like fall for us meteorologists, it is fall for us for the number-keeping. I got a curious question, Tony. So I never, I don't know the answer. I know you like it cooler, and I know you like to storm chase. Is fall your favorite season? Because we do have storm chasing season coming up with more severe weather in the fall season. So what's your favorite season? My favorite season has hands-down always been fall. Not just because of the weather, I like cooler temperatures. I like it where we can still get snow, we still get storms, and as I mentioned, there's that big F-word, football. That is the biggie for me as well. I thought it was going to be pumpkin spice that sent him over the edge because he really sold that very well. This was all great, but I think the biggest takeaway confirmed. Tony Loback, pumpkin spice fan. All right, that's what we know. We got to gift him for Christmas. There you go. All right, thanks, Tony, for that report and a little bit of a breakdown as to why we do what we do. Yes, great explanation.

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