So is this an Indian Summer?

As September arrives and summer draws to a close people often talk wistfully of the prospect of an Indian Summer. But what do they really mean?

Summer in India can be unbearably hot with temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius. It can also be deluged in the southwesterly monsoon.

Surely no one wants that here in the West Country!

The origin

The origins of an Indian Summer are uncertain, but it is believed to relate to the Indians of North America, not those of the Asian subcontinent.

Alistair Cooke, in one of his renowned ‘Letters from America’ provides this explanation:

"During the autumn period, these summer spells of quiet, anticyclonic weather are associated with mainly clear skies and long nights. This leads to plenty of nocturnal cooling and radiation fog forms extensively.

"The Indians used these periods of poor visibility in the fog to attack white settlers, and there lay the connection."

Richard Angwin - Wiltshire weather is his expertise.

An even less charitable explanation is that anything related to native Americans was considered to be inferior. So an Indian Summer was a derogatory term to describe a period of dull, foggy weather.

Either way, the term made its way to this side of the Atlantic at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

It is used with respect to fine weather in October and November.

Interestingly, St Luke’s Little Summer is a spell of fine weather that is supposed to occur around the 18th October.

So fine weather around this time is certainly greeted with enthusiasm.

Richard Angwin
Points West Weatherman