St Luke, apparently, died a bachelor in Bithnia at the age of 74. The writer of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles practised medicine for a few years in Antioch until he developed a close relationship with Paul, and then accompanied the latter on many of his journeys.
His feastday is today, October 18th, and his importance to meteorology lies in his summer, "St Luke's Summer", which, confusingly, occurs around the middle of the autumn.
Although there is no sign at the time of writing of its occurrence in 2000, it is common enough for a spell of quiet settled anti-cyclonic weather to occur around this time of year.
Sooner or later, almost every year, the normal procession of eastward moving depressions is interrupted for a time, and a short-lived cell of high pressure develops over western and northern Europe; it is a sort of encore that even the most mediocre summer cannot quite resist, a welcome respite that occurs with sufficient regularity for it to have become a feature of many countries' folklore.
In olden times it was common to link the supposed occurrence of such a spell to the nearest date of consequence on the church calendar. If, for example, the anticyclone happened to establish itself in very early autumn, it became "St Michael's Summer ", linked to his feastday on September 29th.
"All-Hallows Summer" was a fine spell coinciding with All Saints' Day on November 1st, while St Martin's Summer was believed to start on his feastday on November 11th.
And a period of fine weather around this time of year is associated with the feast of Luke, and becomes "St Luke's Summer".
But perhaps the best known expression for autumnal warmth and sun, albeit not related to any specific date, is "Indian summer".
The term is of relatively recent origin, unknown, it seems, before the middle of the last century; it relates to the brief spell of warm and pleasant weather which was regularly expected every year by the American Indians, and used by them to prepare for the harsh winters on the Great Plains.
Its traditional character was well captured by Longfellow in The Song of Hiawatha, when he tells how the benign personification of the south wind, Shawondasee, brought the warm, hazy, Indian summer to the Great Plains before the real onset of winter every year:
From his pipe the smoke ascending,
Filled the sky with haze and vapour,
Filled the air with dreamy softness,
Gave a twinkle to the water,
Touched the rugged hills with smoothness,
Brought the tender Indian Summer
To the melancholy Northland.