Other than the hemisphere thing, I think some replies are missing that outside North America they don't call autumn "fall".

Wuhan is in the northern hemisphere, and always has been.

Well ... it does mean something to most Americans given their seasonality. But point taken, it's not universal.

It's an article published by an American university and 90% of the planet lives in the northern hemisphere, so it doesn't seem like much to be in a twist about.

I live in the northern hemisphere, there's still no such thing as a "fall" in my vernacular!

Not even post-punk manc miserabilism? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_(band)

Sure, but it's commonplace enough to be understood (roughly) as September-December without much thought... yeah? I've always lived in a 4-season bubble that uses Fall and Autumn interchangeably so maybe I'm wrong.

Perhaps it depends also on whether the forests in your region are primarily evergreen or deciduous (with falling leaves..)