What is season?

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.

Seasonal weather differences between hemispheres are further caused by the elliptical orbit][harmonic law 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.

The cycle of seasons in the polar and temperate zones of one hemisphere is opposite to that in the other. When it is summer in the Northern hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern hemisphere, and vice versa.

In the tropics, there is no noticeable change in the amount of sunlight. However, many regions (such as the northern Indian Ocean) are subject to monsoon rain and wind cycles. A study of temperature records over the past 300 years^[1] shows that the climatic seasons, and thus the seasonal year, are governed by the anomalistic year rather than the tropical year.

In meteorological terms, the winter solstice and summer solstice (or the date of maximum/minimum insolation) do not fall in the middle of winter and summer respectively. The heights of these seasons occur up to a month later because of seasonal lag. Seasons though, are not always defined in meteorological terms.

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