During the summer, the Sun tracks more directly overhead, rising in the east, overhead at noon, and setting in the west. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, the Sun will be more northerly in the sky during the winter that is, June, July, and August.
So if you go to South Africa for the winter holidays, bring your swimsuit and leave your skis at home. Weather Forecasting. Barrow sees two months of total darkness, as the Sun never rises for about a month on each side of the winter solstice. On the other hand, Barrow also has total light from mid May to early August. And what about the north pole, or 90 degrees north latitude? The Sun rises in the early evening near the spring equinox and never sets again until just after the autumnal equinox, or six months of light.
Conversely, after the Sun sets in the mid morning just after the autumnal equinox, it will not be seen again until the following spring equinox, equating to six months of darkness. Please Contact Us. Please try another search. Multiple locations were found. Please select one of the following:. Location Help.
News Headlines. Customize Your Weather. Privacy Policy. What Causes the Seasons? This means that on this date, day and night have about the same length: 12 hours each, more or less. Why should this tilt of the Earth's axis matter to our weather?
To understand this, take a piece of paper and a flashlight. Shine the light from the flashlight straight onto the paper, so you see an illuminated circle. All the light from the flashlight is in that circle. Now slowly tilt the paper, so the circle elongates into an ellipse. All the light is still in that ellipse, but the ellipse is spread out over more paper.
The density of light drops. In other words, the amount of light per square centimeter drops the number of square centimeters increases, while the total amount of light stays the same. The same is true on the earth. When the sun is overhead, the light is falling straight on you, and so more light and more heat hit each square centimeter of the ground. When the sun is lower in the sky, the light gets more spread out over the surface of the earth, and less heat per square centimeter can be absorbed.
Since the earth's axis is tilted, the sun is higher when you are on the part of the earth where the axis points more towards the sun, and lower on the part of the Earth where the axis points away from the sun. For the Northern Hemisphere, the axis points most toward the sun in June specifically around June 21 , and away from the sun around December This corresponds to the Winter and Summer Solstice solstice is Latin for "the sun stands".
For the Southern Hemisphere, this is reversed. For both hemispheres, the earth is 90 degrees away from the sun around March 21 and then again around September This corresponds to the Fall and Spring Equinox equinox is Latin for "equal night". Everyplace in the world has about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night.
Day and night are not exactly of equal length at the time of the March and September equinoxes. And, believe it or not, aphelion when Earth is farthest from the Sun occurs in July, and perihelion when we are closest occurs in January.
For those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere where it's summer in July and winter in January, that seems backwards, doesn't it? That just goes to prove that Earth's distance from the Sun is not the cause of the seasons. What Causes the Seasons? The Short Answer:. Earth's tilted axis causes the seasons.
Throughout the year, different parts of Earth receive the Sun's most direct rays.
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