Seasons

It’s starting to get warmer here in Virginia! I love feeling the winter start to recede—winters here are mild compared to some places, but I’m not a fan of anything that makes my bones hurt, and that includes Virginia cold.

When you first start to think about why we have seasons here on Earth, you probably go to the same place my mind went as a young kid: distance.

“I can’t wait until the Earth gets close to the Sun again, so we can have another nice summer!”, you think. This seems very intuitive!

I think back to the first trip I took to Brazil, back in 2004. It was July, and Rio was about as cold as it ever gets (which is to say: still pretty warm). Here in the northern hemisphere, the December solstice (usually December 21st or 22nd) is the official start of winter. It’s the shortest day and longest night of the year, and it marks a turning point: days only get longer from here.

That’s a good technical name for why winter officially begins when it does, but why should it be that Braz…