I always thought the shorter day means the earth is further away from the sun, so why is all of winter after that point? (Similarly with summer).
In: Physics
It’s rooted in astronomical tradition. Back in the days, many people used to celebrate the winter solstice (shortest day), summer solstice (longest day), as well as the equinoxes in the middle between those two. So if you want to find an exact date where winter begins, the winter solstice is a pretty good one.
Of course, this doesn’t perfectly align with weather patterns in most of the world. So for meteorogists, winter goes from december to the end of february, which are the coldest months in the northern hemisphere.
That said, there are also much different definitions for seasons, for example some tropical areas only know dry season and wet season.
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