Season, weather

The Czech republic has a moderate continental climate. There ar four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter. Every season lasts about three months.

Spring begins on 21st March, but it comes earlier to the lowlands and later to the mountains. I consider spring the most beautiful season of the year. Nature begins to awake from long winter sleep and new life begins. Nights get shorter and days get longer. It is more sunshine and it is warmer and warmer. The snow melts, the paths are full of mud and there can be floods along the rivers and streams. The first flowers appear in the garden – white snowdrops and snowflakes, yellow marsh marigolds, dandelions and daffodils, blue forget-me-nots, coloured crocuses and tulips and purple violets. Birds such as swallows or storks come back from the south and we can hear their singing. The weather especially in April is very unpredictable and changeable. The temperatures are often below zero at night, but days are often quite warm.

Summer begins on 21st June. It is very good season, because we have two months holidays. People take holidays and set on journeys. People take a rest and they are often swimming or sunbathing. The temperature rises to 25°C or more and there is many fine days in a row. In the morning there is often dew, the sky is clear and bright and it is very sunny. We suffer from a heat wave sometimes. In summer rain often comes with storm. It gets quickly dark and colder, there is a breeze and then a strong wind. There is a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning and a heavy downpour. Everybody tries to hide. But it is very dangerous to stand under the tree, because the lightning can hit you. Occasionally there can be hailing. Summer is time for the harvest corn and yield of strawberries, tomatoes, raspberries and other vegetable.

Autumn comes on 23rd September. The sun sets earlier and rises later, the days gets shorter. The nice weather breaks although we can still enjoy a few fine days of Indian summer. In the garden it is time of harvest, we pick apples, pears, plums and potatoes. We are delighted with the coulours of leaves. In November are trees all bare. Many people go mashrooming. Birds flock together and set out on the journey to the south. In autumn the weather is unsettled, the sky is often cloudy. It is often rainy, wet and damp. Then come first frosts and in the morning there is a hoarfrost on the grass and haze or fog. Cold wind blows from the north and it is still colder and colder.

Then on 21st December comes winter. Typical winter weather brings snowfall, icy wind and hard frosts. Sometimes wind piles up snowdrifts along the roads and we have to clear the snow , because there would be many accidents. We usually enjoy skiing or snowboarding in the mountains. Children like throwing snowballs, building snowmen, sledging, sliding and skating on lakes and streams. The temperature sometimes drops to as low as some 20°C below zero. People go out with caps, mittens or gloves and mufflers. Nowadays the climate gets warmer and so the winter is warmer too (except this year).

The weather in Britain is milder than the weather in the Czech Republic, because Britain is surrounded by water. The water helps to control the temperatures and to keep them from being too extreme but it also contributes to the amount of rain that falls in Britain. In Britain they also have four distinct seasons. The winters have more snow than we do here but it isn’t so cold. In spring it rains a lot but there are also sunny days. In summer the temperature can be over 30 degrees but that doesn’t happen very often. In autumn there is also quite a bit of rain and cool days. In Britain the days during summer are slightly longer than they are here and the days in winter are slightly shorter. On average the Czech Republic has more days with sunshine than in Britain.