09/26/2026
The Germans have a name for this exact stretch of the year: Altweibersommer, the old wives' summer.
It's the warm, settled spell that tends to turn up between mid-September and early October, when high pressure parks overhead, the afternoons feel like August again, and the long clear nights go cold. It's also when young spiders let out a strand of silk and let the air carry them off, sometimes a very long way.
Go out early on a still, sunny morning and look toward the sun, low across a field or a hedge. The threads catch the light and shine silver-gray, and after a dewy night you'll find them strung all over the grass.
South of the equator it's spring, and your version of this is months off. Up here it's now, and it doesn't last.
