I'm going based on what my friends in northern India say, who are sitting there sweating and telling me it's the middle of summer.

It's okay, this is another stupid article and I'm trying to stop kneejerk commenting on them because the stream of hucksters, self-congratulators, and general idiocy is endless :)

TIL https://www.javatpoint.com/seasons-in-india

Which, to be fair, is based more on geometry than weather. I always got thrown by it also being called “midsummer” in various contexts long ago. 7 weeks around the solstice would mean summer is almost starting.

Sweating your ass off in high heat does not mean it’s summer unless your definition of summer is based on the weather, either way. I’m intrigued by the relatively local definitions for season start/end from elsewhere, but things like monsoon need their due too.

My understanding is South Asia has summer when we have spring.

For me, and some others, summer starts on Beltane, the night going into the 1st of May.

The modern astronomical seasons are offset by about half a season from the traditional, weather-based seasons; the dates of the start of each season are the traditional midpoints of the season (that is, e.g., the start of astronomical summer is the summer solistice which is traditionally midsummer.)