SeasonsNotes

1 Spring Equinox

2 March 20 or 21

3 Equal amount of daylight & night time hours

4 ~ 12 hours of daylight and night time

Spring

Daylight hours

increasing

1 Summer Solstice

2 June 20 or 21

3 Longest amount of daylight hours

4 ~ 14 hours of daylight

Sum

mer

Daylig

ht h

ours

decre

asin

g

1 Fall Equinox

2 September 21 or 22

3 equal amount of daylight and night time hours

4 ~ 12 hours of daylight and night time hours

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

Fall Day

light

hou

rs d

ecre

asin

g

1 Winter Solstice

2 Dec 20 or 21

3 shortest amount of daylight hours

4. ~ 9 to 10 hours of daylight hours

Win

ter

Daylig

ht h

ours

incr

easin

g

Remember…Earth’s orbit is…

Earth’s orbit around the sun is nearly circular, but not a perfect circle!

Earth’s orbit is an ellipse.

When are we closest to the sun? Perihelion: occurs 2 weeks after…

THE WINTER SOLSTICE

January 4th (this year)

When are we farthest from the sun? Aphelion: occurs 2 weeks after…

THE SUMMER SOLSTICE

July 6th (this year)

IT IS NOT THE DISTANCE THAT WE ARE FROM THE SUN THAT DETERMINES THE SEASONS!

Then what is it?