Winter, spring, summer, and autumn (or fall). Do you have a favorite season? Barkley seems to prefer winter. Depending upon where you live, the weather may change as the season changes. Barkley was preparing for winter by wearing a heavy overcoat.

Do you understand why there are different seasons? The Earth spins on a tilted axis about once every 24 hours to create what we know as day and night. This axis is an invisible line through the center of the Earth. The northern point is the North Pole and the southern point is the South Pole. Looking down over the North Pole, you will notice that the Earth spins counterclockwise. This makes sense when you remember that the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west.

In addition to rotating around its axis, the Earth revolves, or orbits around the sun about once every 365 days. As it revolves around the sun, the tilt of the Earth causes different sections of the Earth to point toward the sun. This causes different amounts of sunlight to reach the same surface area of the Earth throughout the year. The different amounts of sunlight lead to different weather at this location.

In the northern hemisphere, when the North Pole points towards the sun, the sun’s light is more directly overhead and it is summer. When the North Pole points towards the sun, the South Pole tilts away from the sun resulting in scattered and less direct light. People in the southern hemisphere experience winter while people in the northern hemisphere have summer.

The seasons of spring and autumn are created when the Earth’s tilt is neither towards or away from the sun. These seasons usually have milder temperatures.

Do you have a favorite season? Now you may understand why there are changes to the seasons.