WBRZ - Baton Rouge

In other sections of the United States it is not unusual for a winter weather alert to be issued at this time of the year and many locations are also awaiting their first frost. An extended period of dry, warm days, following a frost is common and as noted in a previous column, this describes Indian summer. In Europe, this same weather pattern is called Old Wives' summer, Halcyion days, St. Martin's summer, St. Luke's summer and All-hallown summer. There are years when Indian Summer doesn't occur while numerous episodes have been reported in other years. My weather diary included an e-mail received from Marsha Reichle, where she noted that the reason it is called Indian Summer is because it is traditionally followed by Apache fog