WASHINGTON — At 11:17 a.m. Wednesday, the earth was at its closest point to the sun that it will be in all of 2023. But "close" is a relative term, of course, as the sun was still 91.4 million miles away.
The DMV is also experiencing unseasonable warmth, leading some online commenters to make connections to the two circumstances.
But in reality, the fact that temperatures were about 20 degrees warmer than normal for early January had nothing to do with the Earth's proximity to the sun. Rather, it's the tilt of the Earth's axis that drives annual seasons and changing weather patterns.
During the northern hemisphere winter months, the majority of the sun's energy falls south of the equator because of the earth's tilted axis. That means the southern hemisphere is absorbing more energy and direct sunlight.
The opposite is true during the northern hemisphere summer months.
So while locations south of the equator are experiencing spring and summer, the northern hemisphere is in the middle of winter and fall.
During the spring and fall equinoxes, the sun's energy is focused directly along the equator and split evenly between the northern and southern hemispheres. This is why the spring and fall months are a transitional period weather wise.
Six months from now we'll experience aphelion when the sun is farthest away from earth. 94.5 million miles away from earth to be exact.
