Page "Winter" Paragraph 19

The tilt of the Earth's axis relative to its orbital plane plays a big role in the weather.

The Earth is tilted at an angle of 23. 44 ° to the plane of its orbit, and this causes different latitudes on the Earth to directly face the Sun as the Earth moves through its orbit.

It is this variation that primarily brings about the seasons.

When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere faces the Sun more directly and thus experiences warmer temperatures than the Northern Hemisphere.

Conversely, winter in the Southern Hemisphere occurs when the Northern hemisphere is tilted more toward the Sun.

From the perspective of an observer on the Earth, the winter Sun has a lower maximum altitude in the sky than the summer Sun.