Recently we ran a story that talks about the four very different end dates to winter – now we’re curious as to which one is your preferred end date.

When it comes to the end of Winter and the start of Spring, New Zealanders have the choice of four dates – and none is official.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed to us several years ago that the Government has no official preference on when the seasons change. 

However there are really four different end dates to Winter – and you can take your pick as to which one you prefer to go by.

When does Winter End and Spring Start? It all depends on what your definition of ‘winter’ is…

• Astronomical Dates (winter starts on the shortest day, around June 21, spring therefore doesn’t start until the equinox around Sept 21 – this is based on the earth’s rotation around the sun and not the weather here)

• Meteorological Dates (winter starts on June 1, spring starts Sept 1)

• Solar Winter (The 3 months/12 weeks of the year with the least amount of available sunlight with the shortest day of the year in the middle, meaning the Solar Winter runs from early May to early August – and it’s just finished here in the Southern Hemisphere for 2017).

• Mother Nature – The reality is that New Zealand really does have a short 2 month summer and a short 2 month winter in WeatherWatch.co.nz’s view… the other 8 months are a long drawn out spring and autumn. We see the evidence of this and measure it in the form of animal life cycles, pollen, flowers, buds and grass growth, not to mention current weather patterns too

So with winter coming to an end this week on the Meteorological Calendar we thought it was timely to ask which date you prefer most: