Many of us consider summer to be over after Labor Day, but yesterday was so hot, humid, and hazy that it belonged in mid-August. It reached at least 86 degrees (F) here on the Brooklin peninsular and in nearby Blue Hill, according to the weather tellers. Today is supposed to be hotter. I suppose that we’re “Indian summer.”
The term “Indian Summer” is now recognized as an unseasonably warm, calm period of weather that occurs during autumn or winter. The origins of the phrase go at least back to early America, where a French visitor to Mohawk territory wrote this in January of 1778: “Sometimes, the rain is followed by an interval of calm and warm which is called the Indian summer.” Several researchers have speculated that he was referring to a period of unusually warm weather that allowed Native Americans to resume summer-like hunting in the fall or winter months.
Returning to the here and now, at least some of the scenery remained cool yesterday, including the almost-mountain Blue Hill rising above Blue Hill Bay, as you see above. (Image taken in Blue Hill on September 5, 2023.)