Astronomical or meteorological seasons — which should you pick?
Seasons can follow the real calendar automatically or stay locked to a season you choose. If it follows the calendar, you pick how seasons are calculated — astronomical, based on equinoxes and solstices, or meteorological, based on whole calendar months.
Letting the calendar decide
The setting is called Handle seasons automatically, described in the app as “Let the wallpaper change according to the real season”. Leave it on and Seasons picks the current season for you and switches the landscape when the date rolls over.
Each season gets its own artwork in every one of the 18 scene styles, and its own particles:
| Season | What falls |
|---|---|
| Winter | Snow |
| Spring | Cherry blossom and petals |
| Summer | Bubbles |
| Autumn | Leaves |
Astronomical or meteorological?
When seasons are automatic, a second setting appears — Season calculation method — with two options. This sounds academic but it genuinely changes the date your wallpaper turns.
Astronomical (based on equinoxes and solstices). These are the seasons defined by Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Spring begins at the March equinox, summer at the June solstice, autumn at the September equinox and winter at the December solstice. Because the orbit does not divide neatly into whole days, those moments drift by a day or two from year to year — the March equinox can fall on the 19th, 20th or 21st.
Meteorological (based on calendar months). Meteorologists group the year into four blocks of three whole months, so spring is March, April and May; summer is June, July and August; autumn is September, October and November; winter is December, January and February. The dates never move.
Southern hemisphere: the months above follow the northern calendar. Seasons detects your hemisphere from the device time zone and flips the seasons automatically, so December shows summer in Brazil or Australia, not winter.
Which to choose? If you think of spring as starting “on the equinox”, pick astronomical. If you think of it as “the start of March”, pick meteorological. Meteorological seasons also start roughly three weeks earlier, so if you would rather see blossom sooner, that is the one to use.
Both are correct definitions — they are just answering slightly different questions, which is why the app offers both instead of choosing for you.
Locking a season by hand
Turn Handle seasons automatically off and you can set the season yourself: Winter, Spring, Summer or Autumn. The wallpaper stays there indefinitely, ignoring the calendar entirely.
This is worth knowing if you simply prefer one season’s artwork, or if you want a particular look for a while — permanent winter in a hot August, for instance.
Celebrations
Two extras sit alongside the seasonal calendar, on the Celebrations screen:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Holiday effects | Fireworks light up the sky on New Year’s Day |
| Your birthday | Set your birthday so the wallpaper can mark it |
Both are optional, and neither affects the seasonal artwork the rest of the year.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between astronomical and meteorological seasons?
- Astronomical seasons are defined by the Earth's orbit, so they begin at the equinoxes and solstices and shift by a day or two each year. Meteorological seasons are fixed to whole calendar months, so they begin on the same date every year.
- Can I keep one season all year?
- Yes. Turn off "Handle seasons automatically" and choose Winter, Spring, Summer or Autumn by hand. The wallpaper will stay on it until you change it.
- Does the season affect the weather effects?
- They are independent settings, but they interact visually — the particles that fall are seasonal, so snow belongs to winter and petals to spring, while rain and fog follow the weather instead.
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