Seasonal Weather Expectations

I had an odd realization the other day and thought I'd share. I remember when I moved to Utah, I began to have certain expectations about when the seasons would change from fall to winter, winter to spring, etc. I didn't have those expectations in Arizona, because there are no seasons there--just a change in temperature. (The monsoon was even redefined lately by dates instead of by temperature and amount of rainfall. How we thrive on predictability!)

My expectation for fall was that it would start to get cooler in September, the leaves would fall through October, and the first snow would show up in November. In Utah, I wasn't too disappointed, despite the high desert climate--that just made for hotter summers and a constant worry about drought.

When we moved to Texas, I had the same expectations, to a point. The Hub had made it very clear that it doesn't snow often here, but does ice. And it rains at random times, instead of being neatly organized into one rainy season. But as I was raking leaves last week, I found myself muttering (in my head, anyway) that it was the first week of December, for pity's sake, and it should be colder now and the leaves all should have fallen in November! Because that's when leaves fall, right?

But as I've discussed the weather with The Hub and my in-laws, I've come to the realization that my expectations are shaped by something other than actual weather patterns. At the moment, I blame the influence of Currier and Ives and movies on the collective cultural consciousness (because it isn't just me, right?). Currier and Ives gets the blame for showing actual snow during actual Christmas on their Christmas cards, leading other greeting card companies in the general weather misconception. Movies show time passing by showing seasons in the general order I described them before--cooler in September, leaves fall in October, snow in November, white Christmas assured. It's the movie shorthand for marking the year. (The caveat being, of course, if the movie is set in a specific, non-New England area. Like Arizona. Or India. Or if the plot requires uncooperative weather, as in White Christmas.)

Or do my unconscious weather expectations come from something deeper, like the fact that most of my ancestry is European and my ancestors marked time the way I described, passing that knowledge through their DNA to me? Or is it my own past and the fact that I haven't stayed in one climate long enough to let this weather knowledge sink into my bones? It's a conundrum.