AccuWeather Melissa Constanzer explains the meteorological calendar, how it helps keeping records and why the seasons change.
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00:00As we head throughout the next couple of days,
00:02we know that winter is really getting pretty close.
00:05Less than three weeks away, the first day of winter,
00:07which is December 21st, that is the winter solstice.
00:11We are actually already in winter.
00:13It's just meteorological winter.
00:15If you look at the meteorological calendar,
00:17we break it up into three months for each season.
00:21And there's a reason why we do all this.
00:24First off, we base it on temperature
00:26and when those months tend to fall.
00:28Then, of course, we do those three-month increments,
00:30all to help keep track of records.
00:32If you're familiar with the solstice,
00:34it happens on different days.
00:36It can be a kind of a range of days,
00:38depending on how it is and the start of each season.
00:41So that's not really great for us trying to keep records
00:44of what is the warmest fall on record
00:46or the coldest winter on record.
00:48So this is why we have meteorological winter,
00:51which we are officially in as of yesterday.
00:53But the winter solstice, that doesn't happen
00:55until December 21st, 4.19 a.m. Eastern Time.
00:59And that is, again, the start of astronomical winter.
01:02Also, the shortest day of the year.
01:05After that, yes, you can say at least it's getting brighter
01:08each and every day as we head towards the end of June.
01:11But, of course, it's all part of why the Earth
01:15is tilted on the axis here.
01:16And that tilt is what ultimately gives us the season.
01:20So as the Earth moves around the sun,
01:23you can see it's that tilt that is away
01:26or towards the Earth, depending on which season it is,
01:29that helps create kind of the differences there
01:31in the weather patterns, not only,
01:33but also, of course, the difference in daylight, too,
01:35that we get.
01:36So for winter, the tilt of the axis is away from the sun.
01:39For the Northern Hemisphere,
01:41it means the nights are longer right around the solstice.