Seasons, Weather

A season is one of the major divisions of the year, generally based on yearly periodic changes in weather. more...

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Seasons happen due to the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution. In Temperate and Polar regions, the seasons are marked by changes in the amount of sunlight which may cause animals to go into hibernation or to migrate, and plants to be dormant.

In temperate and polar regions generally four seasons are recognized: spring, summer, autumn, winter.

In some tropical and subtropical regions it is more common to speak of the rainy (or wet, or monsoon) season versus the dry season, because the amount of precipitation may vary more dramatically than the average temperature. In other tropical areas a three-way division into hot, rainy and cool season is used. In some parts of the world, special "seasons" are loosely defined based upon important events such as a hurricane season, tornado season or a wildfire season.

Causes and effects

The seasons result from the Earth's axis being tilted to its orbital plane; it deviates by an angle of 23.5 degrees. Thus, at any given time during summer or winter, one part of the planet is more directly exposed to the rays of the Sun (see Fig. 1). This exposure alternates as the Earth revolves in its orbit. At any given time, regardless of season, the northern and southern hemispheres experience opposite seasons.

It is easy to observe the effect of the axis tilt from the change in day length, and altitude of the Sun at noon (the culmination of the Sun), during a year.

Seasonal weather differences between hemispheres are further caused by the elliptical orbit of Earth. Earth reaches perihelion (the point in its orbit closest to the Sun) in January, and it reaches aphelion (farthest point from the Sun) some six months later. Even though the effect this has on Earth's seasons is minor, it does noticeably soften the northern hemispheres' winters and summers. In the southern hemisphere, the opposite effect is observed.

Seasonal weather fluctuations(changes) also depend on factors such as proximity to oceans or other large bodies of water, currents in those oceans, El Niño/ENSO and other oceanic cycles, and prevailing winds.

In the temperate and polar regions, seasons are marked by changes in the amount of sunlight, which in turn often causes cycles of dormancy in plants and hibernation in animals. These effects vary with latitude and with proximity to bodies of water. For example, the South Pole is in the middle of the continent of Antarctica and therefore a considerable distance from the moderating influence of the southern oceans. The North Pole is in the Arctic Ocean, and thus its temperature extremes are buffered by the water. The result is that the South Pole is consistently colder during the southern winter than the North Pole during the northern winter.

Read more at Wikipedia.org