JA -
Here in New Hampshire we have different seasons than the USA. Winter starts in earnest in late December and through January and February we can get 10' of snow (12' in 2015.) Winter transitions to 'sap season' in late February / early March as the Maple sap runs and the sugar shacks boil it down to syrup. Temperatures can still be below zero at night. As daytime temps rise, we enter 'mud season' where a car can be mired to the axles on our gravel town roads, and roads are closed to vehicles over 6K#. Then comes 'black fly season' - biting insects that didn't exist in Kentucky > merging into 'mosquito season' in May. We say that spring weather keeps the riffraff at bay.
Then comes 4th of July when it turns to heaven and the 'summer people' come to fill their camps and lakes and villages. Varieties of glorious weather without appreciable insects continue into Autumn, sometimes 'till Thanksgiving. Even in the heat of August, night-time temperatures often drop into the 50s, and regularly the 60s, making the heat of the day more of a joy than a burden. September / October provide a glorious Autumn with forest canopy colors to rival anywhere and the arrival of the 'leaf peepers' bringing appreciation and tourism. Around Halloween to Thanksgiving, things turn rough and 'the bottom of November' can be quite deep. Christmas is more often fairy-book than not, and many older folks head south when snow starts piling up in earnest in January. Summer cars are stored and locals (year-rounders) hunker down for the very short days and long nights of winter.
For us, August is high summer, all month long. It shifts hard when school starts and families migrate to that reality. I came here in 1996, related to work, and feel fortunate to have found this village in this region. Northern New England seems more like England than the USA in its traditions and frame of mind.
