To clarify, I’m asking why when it is winter IN the southern hemisphere, why is it milder than winters in the northern.
Not asking why are the seasons reversed.
In: 2765
It has more to do with the amount of land that’s positioned between the tropics and antarctic. Water acts as a heat sick, so higher percentage of water to land means temps stay more consistent and also the lower amount of land in general mean there are fewer places far enough south to be as cold as places far north are.
There’s just more land in the Northern Hemisphere. Most of the land in the Southern Hemisphere is close to the equator. There are places that are far from the equator that do get cold and snowy winters, like Patagonia in Argentina or the South Island of New Zealand… and (obviously) Antarctica.
Sydney, Australia is only at 33°S. The equivalent latitude in the Northern Hemisphere splits the US states of Arkansas and Louisiana. Those places don’t get cold and snowy winters either.
Weather depends on a lot of factors including things like the geography of the area, ocean currents, and prevailing winds. But something to consider is that there is just a lot more land that is more north than there is south (that people live on).
For example think of Winnipeg, Canada. Pretty cold in the winter, right? Well almost all of the UK is north of Winnipeg which is 49 degrees North. However if we look at land which is 49 degrees South in the southern hemisphere we find… some of Argentina and the Falkland Islands? Auckland Islands of New Zealand are that far south but not much else.
Look at a globe and you’ll see there’s far more land mass in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern Hemisphere, especially in the extreme latitudes. Consequently almost nobody lives in the far South and even those few who do are close to the ocean where temperatures are moderated by the water.
It is? Do you compare land at the same latitude?
Most land in the southern hemisphere is closer to the equator than most land in the southern hemisphere. Look at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_map#/media/File:Winkel_triple_projection_SW.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_map#/media/File:Winkel_triple_projection_SW.jpg) and use horizontal latitude line for comparisons. The southern part of Australia and Africa have the same attitude as the land area around the Mediterranean Sea.
The southern tip of South America has the same latitude as Denmark. Northern Scandinavia overlaps the Antarctic.
That there is less land also results in the distance to the ocean being lower. You have higher temperature change far away from the ocean just beside it.
The average winter temperature of the northern hemisphere is colder than the southern hemisphere. This is because 2/3 of the land is in the northern hemisphere and only 1/3 is in the southern hemisphere. Land change temperature more than oceans. So the northern hemisphere gets colder on average in the winter and warmer in th summer compared to the southern hemisphere.
Look at the map of the world (with latitude and longitude). Now draw a line that represents about the 40 degree line north of the equator and 40 degree line south of the equator.
Notice how much land mass in the northern hemisphere is above the northern line and how much land mass in the southern hemisphere is below the southern line?
This gives you a good idea why many countries in the northern hemisphere are colder than countries in the southern hemisphere. There are lots of other factors, of course.
The land mass of the world is NOT equally divided or distributed between the north and south.
More land in the northern hemisphere. Land cools/heats much faster than water does.
Pretty much no land in the southern hemisphere at about 60 degrees south. So if your point of comparison is a northern hemisphere city at 60 degrees north, then you don’t really have a fair comparison. If you’re comparing a city at the tip of South America, it’s not very far from the ocean, compared to some northern hemisphere cities at the equivalent latitude.
Southern hemisphere winters as a whole are actually colder than northern hemisphere winters. The difference is where the land is (ie. where the people are). Almost all southern hemisphere land is relatively close to the equator: only the far southern tip of NZ and far southern parts of Argentina and Chile extend south of 45° latitude. This means that almost all land (and thus people) living in the southern hemisphere are closer to the equator than the South Pole.
Compare with the northern hemisphere where billions of people live north of 45°N: most of Europe, almost all of Canada, fair chunks of the US, China and of course Russia and other central Asian an ex-USSR countries.
The major population centres of the southern hemisphere are all tropical, subtropical or mild temperate/oceanic (think southern Australia, NZ). They just aren’t far enough south to get persistent polar air masses in winter.
Furthermore, the fact that it’s pretty much all ocean south of 45°S all the way to Antarctica means that polar airmasses that do work their way to more temperate areas warm up a lot more than they would in the northern hemisphere. Water has a MUCH higher heat capacity than land does, particularly if that land is already snow covered. Compare an equally cold polar airmass leaving the polar regions and heading to a mid latitude city (say Chicago for the north and Melbourne for the south). In the north it comes down across land the whole way (Canada), and has little opportunity to pick up any heat from the frozen land below. In the south it’s absorbing heat from the unfrozen ocean the whole way up before it gets to Australia, and thus is substantially warmer by the time it gets there (note: Australia does get substantial snow still at higher elevations, but not in any of the major cities).
It’s not *that* much of a difference. There are 2 main things:
1. There’s less sea in the northern hemisphere, and water holds heat better leading to a smoother temperature change. If you enter a pool at 10AM in summer, sometimes you feel the water still cold from the night. And if you enter the same pool later at 10PM, the water will still be warm from the day.
2. There are no people living *really* south so our image of the southern hemisphere is based on places with mild climate. Look up the list of southernmost things in Wikipedia and compare to the list of northernmost things. The largest city in the southern hemisphere is São Paulo; which is bang on the Tropic of Capricorn. It would be the equivalent of Key West, FL. Sydney, Buenos Aires, and Santiago are all around the 33° south mark, which is close to Los Angeles. Auckland in New Zealand is 36º, which is like Nashville, TN. After that you only get smaller cities and all settlement ends around the same latitude as Edmonton, Canada.
One other reason not mentioned is that Earths orbit is not circular, it’s elliptical. Precession will eventually change this but it will take centuries.
The Earth is at perihelion around 3 January and at aphelion around 3 July. The heat retained in the southern hemisphere oceans makes the average temperature of the Earth a few degrees higher in July when Earth is furthest from the Sun than it is in January when it is its closest.
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