Why does it get cold in the winter and hot in the summer?
Another basketball analogy
Trying something new!
While I have tried to simplify explanations in my first two posts, they probably aren’t written in a way a 5 year old would easily understand them. So, I’ll be trying something new: an explanation, analogy, or story in even more basic language, before I go into some more details or interesting facts for parents.
Hi, I’m 5. Explain this to me!
Let’s play a weird game of basketball!
Imagine you are a basketball player playing defense.
Your friend has the basketball and is trying to score in the hoop. You notice that the basketball has a big picture on the top part of the ball.
But, instead of dribbling and trying to score, your friend starts running around you in circles, while balancing the ball on their finger.
Even weirder, as they run around you, they only look toward the basketball hoop, in one direction.
Even though you are confused, you notice that they didn’t put their finger at the bottom of the ball. The ball is being balanced at an angle, so that sometimes the big picture on the top of the ball is facing you and easy to see. Sometimes, it is not depending on where your friend is in the circle.
Now, imagine you are the sun.
You are the sun, a big ball of heat and warmth.
Let’s pretend your family was shrunk and lived on the big picture on the basketball.
As your friend runs around you and you don’t move, your heat warms the big picture where your family lives more when you can see the big picture, and less when it’s harder to see. This depends on where your friend is running around in the circle.
This is similar to why our planet Earth has different seasons - some like summer are warmer and sunnier because they have a better angle toward the sun. Others, like winter, are harder to see and heat, with more rain and cold. It all depends on where we are in our circle around the sun!
It’s not cold in the winter everywhere
Where we live in the United States, summer is hot and winter is cold.
But, our friends and other people in the bottom half of the world like South America, Africa, and Australia, have the opposite weather! It’s hot in the winter and cold in the summer, since the angle of the Earth affects them the opposite way.
For parents
Seasons, weather, and climate are all affected by the amount of energy the Earth’s surface and atmosphere receives at different parts of the day and year, among other factors.
In the Northern Hemisphere during summer, the angle of the Earth more directly faces the sun such that more of the heat and the Sun’s energy hits more of the Earth.
This is in contrast to winter, when the same amount of energy from the sun spreads over a larger surface of land and is up twice as weak (much less energy!) due to the angle the sun hits the Earth’s round surface.
This causes cooler temperatures since nearly all of the warmth and energy we get on Earth comes from the Sun (some small amount comes from Earth’s active core).
Finally, Earth near the Equator typically gets the same amount of energy and daylight all year round since the tilt doesn’t affect the angle of the sun’s energy hitting the surface.
Because of this, most areas near the Equator don’t really have a cold winter or a hot summer, but rather a rainy or dry season influenced by other factors in the weather system!