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I have to say one thing this morning.

What’s that?

Aaaaah ! Autumn! 

Yes, it’s officially autumn, isn’t it? 

The first day of autumn began on the 22nd of September. It was also the fall equinox in the northern hemisphere. On that day the number of hours of daylight and darkness are nearly the same - about 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness.

Every day until December 21, we will have fewer and fewer hours of daylight.  We have been having fewer hours of daylight since the first day of summer, June 20, but in the fall, we really start to notice that our days are getting shorter.

It is correct to say  fall or autumn? “Autumn” is a little more formal. It is used more in British English. The use of “fall” comes from the “fall” of leaves from the trees. “Fall” is used more in the U S. In the US “autumn” is still used more  in literature and songs. It’s a more “poetic” word.

In the fall in western Washington the weather gets cooler. It's chilly-especially in the mornings and evenings.  We often have foggy mornings with “pockets” of fog - fog in a very limited area like a pocket. 

It starts to rain in the fall. In September and the beginning of October we have light rain. In late October into December and November we get heavy rain.  December and November are the  wettest months in the Seattle area. Notice that superlative: the wettest of all the months. We use “the” before the superlative adjective.

If I am comparing two months, I use wetter – the comparative form of the adjective wet. October is wetter than September, and December and November are the wettest months in the year. 

With the rain we can have a lot of wind in the fall. Sometimes there is just a little wind and we say, “It is breezy today.” When the cool weather moves in from the Pacific Ocean, it can bring strong winds.

Notice that we often use “it” when we talk about the weather. We can say “The weather is nice today.” But we often say “It is nice today.”  It is not correct to say, “Is nice today.” In English we always need a subject in our sentences, and if we don’t use “the weather” as a subject, we have to use “it” as our subject. 

It isn’t rainy and windy every day in the fall, is it?

No, it is not rainy and windy every day in the fall! Some days are cloudy or overcast (when the sky is cast -covered over) with clouds. We can also have beautiful clear blue-sky days in the fall. Those days are even more beautiful – spectacular – because the leaves on the deciduous trees are turning orange, red and yellow.  A deciduous tree is a tree that loses its leaves every fall. Some examples of deciduous trees in Western Washington:

Cottonwood trees are deciduous trees that grow very tall and have heart shaped leaves. You often see cottonwoods in moist soil near rivers. Cottonwood leaves often turn bright yellow in the fall.

Maple trees are another deciduous tree native to Western Washington. Big leaf maples live up to their name. They are huge! Big leaf maple leaf leaves also turn bright yellow in the fall. 

There are many more deciduous trees that add their color to the painting of a beautiful fall day. When leaves fall from the trees, they don’t fall fast like a rock, they float slowly down to the ground.

An autumn day with yellow and orange trees outlined by a deep blue sky and red and yellow leaves floating in the breeze is like magic.

What do you like to do in the fall, dear listener?

Look for the “rain” episode!

Tacomaliteracy.org