Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-7526254-20150520160921/@comment-24674051-20150521145701

Exactly.

Season 1 starts in October of 2011 (coninciding with the premiere date of OUaT, surprisingly). There were small time gaps during season 1 that were not necessarily spelled out, but I know like 2 weeks between Grahams death and Emma stepping up for sherrif, plus however long it took for campaigning and election stuff. So, overall, Season 1 was probably 6-8 months.

Season 2 starts at the end of season one, or roughly late spring of 2012. Emma and Snow were in the EF for probably a week (which covered 9 episodes). The Cora/Hook/New York City portion covered probably 1-2 more weeks, and the Greg and Tamara part were about 1-2 weeks. So Season 2 was, at most, 2 months of time passage.

Season 3 starts right at the end of Seaons 2, so it is early-mid summer 2012. The entire Neverland Arc takes about a week, which brings us to late summer 2012. 3B starts with a 1 year jump, so that puts it Late Summer 2013. The WWotW arc was no more than a week, so we are probably up to around September 2013. (Frozen was not released until Thanksgiving 2013).

Season 4 starts, again, right where they left season 3. During the Frozen Arc, we know that Blue was reported missing on Nov 6, 2013, and that was right before Anna and Elsa returned to Arendelle (just in time to catch the Frozen Priemier at the Arendelle 24 IMAX). From the point where Blue went missing, there were at most 2 days before the Arendelle gang departs, so the arc ended, and Rumple was banished, around Nov 8-9.

Season 4B picks up 9 weeks afterward (Heart of Gold), or roughly Mid-January 2014. and again the action is fast and furious, so I would hazard a guess that Operation:Mongoose ends roughly Feb 1, 2014.