The four seasons — of Hawaii

Somewhere there may be a place with four distinct seasons, each of them about a quarter of a year long, but I have never lived there. But all locales have seasons, and I like Hawaii’s very much.

Chesapeake Bay country and Washington, D.C., where I was spawned, has four distinct seasons, but of highly unequal lengths. Summer and winter are long and miserable. Spring lasts for about two weeks while the cherry blossoms are out. Fall comes around Oct. 15.

In Chicago it is customary to say that there are two seasons — winter and construction season.

In New Hampshire there is a mud season.

I have pondered how to parse Hawaii weather and come up with four seasons — two that form a backdrop to the calendar, interrupted from time to time by two others.

Spring begins on Easter and lasts until Thanksgiving, interrupted, sometimes more than once and sometimes for weeks at a time, by Kona Season, in which the trade winds die down and the entire state feels like the inside of your car after you parked on the Ala Moana sun desk with the windows up.

Fall lasts from Thanksgiving until Easter, interrupted, sometimes more than once and sometimes for weeks, by Storm Season. Storm Season can be windy, rainy or both, but it feels a lot colder, especially if you never close your windows.

Am I getting this right, or should Windy Season and Rainy Season be two separate interruptions of the prevailing cool season?

And how can we get one of those construction seasons?