People often ask me how we change seasons.
"Is it because the earth is closer to the sun? Is that why we are hotter in the summer?"
That’s the typical thought by many. However, that’s not exactly what takes place. In fact, it’s not even close.
As we prepare for our days to either get longer or shorter and temperatures to either rise or fall, we often wonder how and why this happens.
The distance from the sun actually doesn’t have a large role in our season shift. The planet sits farther away from the sun during our North American summer. Our winter is the opposite, the earth is positioned closer to the sun.
So, why do we have seasons?
The answer has to do with our polar tilt.
Our earth sits on an axis of 23.5 degrees. This is what gives us summer, fall, winter and spring. As the earth rotates around the sun, the position of our hemisphere changes, which delivers different amounts of heat and light to our region. This ultimately changes our day length and our temperature trends. Bottom line, it changes our seasons.
