The vacationers were gone. Signs of fall were everywhere. There were football games on TV and pumpkins for sale at farm stands. And yet Lexi Schultz, 25, and her friend Kate Krstevska, 22, were at Lighthouse Beach in Chatham, Mass.
“I’m happy,” Ms. Schultz said. “This is the best time for me.”
Skies were blue. The two women, who work at Wequassett Resort and Golf Club, a luxury hotel on Cape Cod, had the beach practically to themselves on Friday. They sat on a blanket amid the dunes and enjoyed a picnic lunch. When the temperature inched into the 70s, Ms. Schultz did some sunbathing.
For many people, summer ends, as if with a flick of a switch, on the morning after Labor Day. The kids are back in school. There is a feeling of business in the air.
But in the rush to embrace sweater weather, a simple fact can be overlooked: September is mostly a summer month.
This year, fall does not begin until Sept. 22 — at 8:44 a.m., to be specific. For summer’s die-hard fans, these last weeks of golden light may top the languorous days of June, July and August. The holdouts cite the lack of crowds, the bargains on hotel rooms and vacation-home rentals, the breezes that flush out the humidity.
“Summer is not over,” said Jayma Cardoso, the founder and creative director of the Surf Lodge in Montauk, N.Y. “The weather is incredible in September.”
Although the Surf Lodge closes for the season the weekend after Labor Day, Ms. Cardoso stays on through the month, savoring a Montauk that is unknown to many of the hotel’s guests.
“I think it’s the empty beaches,” she said. “You can walk for miles without bumping into a person.”
Given the effects of climate change, temperatures in the northeastern United States can stay, well, summerlike, deep into the month. In the coming days, weather forecasters say, the thermometer will hit the mid-80s in New York City and the mid-70s on Cape Cod. It’s a fine time to take a dip in the ocean, said Jonathan Erdman, a senior meteorologist for the Weather Company.
“By September, if no decent cold fronts have come through, the water temperature is as warm as it’s going to get,” he said.
Still, a subtle tug of war between summer people and fall devotees plays out this time of year. With every advertisement for a haunted corn maze or Instagram post of a leaf-peeping trip through Vermont, the autumn lovers seem to be saying: “Get off the beach. Put on a sweater. It’s over.”
The early embrace of the coming season irks Matthew Andersen, the executive director of programs and events for Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y. He has fought back by issuing what he describes as an annual public service announcement on social media.
“Dear Everyone: Labor Day is NOT the ‘End of Summer,’” reads the message that he found online a few years ago and posted on his Instagram account last week. It goes on to say: “I don’t care if there are pumpkin spice lattes to be had and school supplies to be bought. Summer doesn’t end for weeks. Let’s stop rushing through the season.”
“This weekend, I am planning on getting to the beach,” Mr. Andersen, 60, said when reached by phone. “Getting my feet in the sand.”
In Chatham on Friday, the locals were enjoying what they affectionately call Cape Codders’ Summer.
Michael MacAskill, 53, the co-owner of North Chatham Outfitters, a shop that sells fishing tackle and rents kayaks, canoes and paddle boards, said he has a chance to relax once prime tourist season is over.
“My summer begins after Labor Day,” he said.
His store still had a trickle of business, thanks to late-arriving vacationers attuned to September’s charms and deals, but Mr. MacAskill and his employees finally had time to get out on their boats or enjoy a cookout on the beach.
A mile up the road, at the Chatham Fish Pier, Paul Borde, an agent for Duarte Downey Real Estate, was putting his 17-foot Boston Whaler in the water. He had knocked off work early and planned to go fly fishing off Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.
“Now is my favorite time of year,” Mr. Borde, 58, said. “It’s kind of nice because there’s blankets at night, but for people at the beach, it’s 72 degrees.”
Back at Lighthouse Beach, Stephen Merselis, 86, was taking his daily walk after a recent back operation. Dressed in a blue pinstriped shirt, dark shorts and a ball cap, he paused on a bluff and looked out on the dunes and ocean below. It seemed clear enough to sail to Portugal.
Feeling the sun on his face, he said wryly, “Maybe the weather will improve.”
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