November 7 this year is the "Start of Winter" festival. Start of Winter is also the first solar term of winter in the lunar calendar. Start of Winter lasts from November 7th or 8th to the 22nd or 23rd, and like Spring Begins, Summer Begins, and Autumn Begins, it stands for the beginning of a new season. In the birthplace of the twenty-four solar terms, the areas around the Yellow River, those three solar terms usually give the impression that the actual weather features of spring, summer, or autumn come earlier than they really do. The Start of Winter, however, is often synchronized with the weather.

The Start of Winter is not the beginning of winter in terms of meteorology. According to experts, the Start of Winter stands for the change of solar terms and it begins at a relatively fixed time, November 7th or 8th, every year. The climate every year, however, is different, so the beginning of winter would be much quite different, and the time difference may be up to two or three weeks.

People are accustomed to take the Winter Begins Day as the beginning of winter. In fact, with the vast territory of China, in addition to the South China coastal areas where there is no winter throughout the year and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region where there is no summer all year round, the winter of every area doesn’t begin at the same time. According to the division of seasons in meteorology, the season with an average temperature of 5 days below 10℃ is winter. Thus the saying of “Start of Winter is the beginning of winter” is consistent with the climate rules of Huang-Huai region. Based on the past experience, Mohe, the northernmost area of China, and the north area of Daxing'anling enter winter at the beginning of September. At the beginning or middle of October, the northwest and northeast areas enter winter, and Beijing enters winter at the end of October. After that, the winter moves southward frequently, and at the beginning of December, the winter gradually approaches the Wuyi mountain range and the northern slope of Nanling Mountain.

Source: Weather.com.cn

Translated by Zhang Min

Editor: Wen Yi