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Why do we have seasons?
This time of the year, the tilt of the Earth leads to sunlight being more focused on South America and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere So, they get summer. Families there will even celebrate Christmas together on the beach.
PHILADELPHIA - It's true! The first day of winter is the shortest day of the year for us.
With less sunlight, no wonder why it's chilly this time of the year.
But, there's more to it: we have seasons because the Earth is tilted.
This time of the year, the tilt of the Earth leads to sunlight being more focused on South America and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere. So, they get summer. Families there will even celebrate Christmas together on the beach
For us, we have a lot less sunlight focused on the US this time of the year, so it's chilly.
That all changes in the summer. In the summer, sunlight will be more focused on us, so we get nice and warm. The more sunlight you have focused on you, the warmer you get. Our summer is when there's less light over South America and the Southern Hemisphere, so it's wintertime for them.
If the Earth were tilted much more, the seasons would be more extreme. Summers would be a lot warmer and winters would be a lot colder. If the Earth weren't tilted, the weather would stay the same. It'd be mild year-round.
And one more interesting fact: the Earth is closest to the sun in January!
It just goes to show you, it's not about how close the Earth is to the sun during its yearly trip around our star. Instead, it's the tilt of the Earth that leads to how warm and how cold we get.
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