Seasons are really amazing things. They are all so different and they change throughout the year which is really cool. On this page, we will explain why the seasons are there and how they change. It is a very complicated process that involves how the earth rotates around the sun and which way the northern and southern hemispheres are positioned.
How The Seasons Change
The process through which seasons occur and change is very interesting. All it really relies on is which position the earth is in its rotation. The earth is tilted on an axis. The way it is tilted is really what is important. Though the earth rotates and it orbits, it does not actually move out of its axis so that it is always tilted. Now imagine when the earth orbits the sun that it is tilting and when it moves one top or bottom half of the earth is pointing towards the sun and one half is pointing away. These two halves of the earth are call the Northern Hemisphere (the top half) and the Southern Hemisphere (the bottom half).
The Northern and Southern Hemispheres
As mentioned before, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are the top and bottom halves of the earth. The Northern Hemisphere includes continents like North America, most of Asia, Europe, and half of Africa. The Southern Hemisphere includes continents like half of Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and South America. The way that the seasons change is what these hemispheres are most used for. When the earth orbits the sun, the earth moves on an imaginary line throughout its orbit. Because of the positioning, sometimes the Northern Hemisphere is pointed toward the sun, making it Spring and Summer up on top, and the Southern Hemisphere points away making Fall and Winter down there, or vice-versa.
Spring is the season that comes after winter in spring it is very beautiful all the flowers are blossoming and it is a great temperature. It is also very awesome because the birds come up north and they just chirp. Now, in North America, we are in the Northern Hemisphere so during Spring time our planet looks like how the earth is positioned in the Spring/Fall position:
As you can tell, when the Northern Hemisphere is half facing the sun, so it is getting pretty warm yet it is only half facing the sun so it still may be a little colder.
Fall is one of my personal favorite season because of all the colors red, orange, yellow. One of my favorite things to do in fall is just drive around because you can look at all of the beautiful leaves. If you're in North America and it is Fall the earth should be positioned as shown in the image as Fall/Spring:
You can probably see that the sun is barely visible for the Northern Hemisphere so that it is windy and pretty chilly and on the brink of Winter.
Summer is the hottest season on earth because that is when the part of the world that is experiencing summer at the time is faced directly towards the sun. As you can see in the diagram, the part of the earth that we are talking about is facing the sun exactly and is experiencing stronger heat from the energy that is cast from the sun.
Winter is the coldest season on earth. During Winter, the part of the earth that is experiencing Winter is facing away from the sun. Because it is facing away, it receives the least amount of heat energy from the sun. This way, the temperature can be so cold that ice and frost forms and the precipitation freezes covering areas in a blanket of snow.