Why is it warmer in the summer than in the winter?

Question

Why is it warmer in the summer than in the winter?

Answer 1

Oddly enough the earth is about 3,000,000 miles nearer to the sun in our northern winter than it is in summer. Yet it is much warmer in summer.The reasons are not caused by different distances from the sun, but by the slant of the earth's axis as it moves around the sun. Scientists have learned that the Equator of the earth is tilted 23 degrees to the path of the earth around the sun.

As the earth moves around the sun, the earth's axis always points in the same direction, towards the North Star. For this reason, during part of the year the North Pole tilts towards the sun and part of the year away from it. When the North Pole is inclined towards the sun, the Northern Hemisphere has its summer. When the North Pole is inclined away from the sun, the Northern Hemisphere has its winter. In the Southern Hemisphere these seasons are reversed.

The difference in weather with the seasons occurs because the sun's rays are more slanting in winter and less slanting in summer. Slanting rays produce less heat for two reasons. One is that they scatter their heat over a larger area of the earth's surface. The other is that they lose more of their heat in passing through the atmosphere.

Other factors, primarily water, land, and altitude, help regulate the climate. Water has a stabilizing effect and helps prevent great changes in temperature. Land does not store up heat (the way the ocean does), so big temperature changes can take place over large land areas. Air grows less dense with altitude and cannot absorb as much heat as at sea level. So the higher the altitude, the lower the temperature will be.

Answer 2

the earth spins around the sun, where all our light and warmth come from

the shape of the orbit is elliptical - egg shaped - so when the earth is at the point ends we have spring or autumn(fall, in USA)

when the earth is closer to the sun, we have winter or summer. Which one it is depends on which way the earth is leaning....the axis is not vertical, but at an angle. This means on one side of the orbit, the southern hemisphere is close to the sun, giving winter in the south and summer in the north. On the other side of the orbit this situation is reversed.

the reason summer is warmer is, we are a lot closer to the sun in summer.

Answer 3

It has to do with the Earth's axial tilt.

Imagine a plane that lies perfectly aligned with the Earth's orbit, so that the center of the Earth never leaves that plane as the Earth moves around the Sun.  The Earth's rotational axis is not perpendicular, or 90º, to that plane.  Instead, the axis is tilted about 23.5º out of that perpendicular position (so it makes an angle of 66.5º with the imaginary plane).

At one point during the year, the Earth's northern hemisphere is therefore tilted toward the Sun, while the southern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun.  Six months later, the southern hemisphere would be tilted toward the Sun while the northern hemisphere would be tilted away.  This tilt causes the seasons.

When the Earth's northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, the sun climbs much higher in the sky for people in the northern hemisphere.  Sunlight strikes the ground at a more direct angle.  As a result, each square meter of ground receives a large amount of sunlight during a typical day.  Ground temperatures, and consequently the air temperature, gets pretty high.  People in the northern hemisphere know that time as summer.

In the meantime, the southern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun.  The sun doesn't climb as high in the sky for people living in the southern hemisphere, so they experience winter while the northern hemisphere experiences summer.  One square meter of ground in the southern hemisphere doesn't receive as much sunlight as the same area in the northern hemisphere, and so it is cooler.

Six months later, the situation is reversed: the nothern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun (and therefore experiencing winter) while the southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun (and therefore experiencing summer).

Spring and fall occur halfway between summer and winter,  when neither hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun.  

I hope that helps.  Good luck!

Answer 4

because of the temperature

Answer 5

Because, the earth is at a tilt of 23.5 degrees (im not too sure) And the earth rotates. And when it is rotating, the side facing the sun will have less sunlight on the southern hemisphere than the northern...

And it is direct sunlight.. which means that the sunlight directly shines on the earth..

Answer 6

It's not if you're between Cancer and Capricorn, temperatures in that region are typically tropical.

Answer 7

because the sun ices over in the winter , and thaws out in the summer . this is got to be the most stupidest question ever. are you in like 1st grade , if so then i understand the intelligence of this , if not well like i have stated .