Winter solstice

Winter solstice just passed (At 23:38 UTC, to be precise). That means the Earth has just passed the point in its orbit where the North Pole is pointing farthest away from the Sun, and as such it's the longest night on the northern hemisphere (And of course 21 and 22 December are logically this year's shortest days, with the Sun lowest on the sky thanks to that). From now on, the Sun will be getting higher and higher in the sky and the days will get longer and the nights shorter.

Yet, strangely, winter has officially only just started. I think it's kind of weird that the season we generally identify will cold and snow and the sort is actually the season where the Sun is climbing higher. This kind of weird placement of the seasons also means most of March is in the winter, even though the weather frequently can get very warm in March. If I had designed the seasons, I wouldn't have had them go from solstice to equinox or equinox to solstice, but I would have had the solstices and equinoces in the middle of each season: Winter would be from 6 November to 6 February, Spring would be from 6 February to 6 May, Summer from 6 May to 6 August, and Autumn from 6 August to 6 November. Like that, the seasons would follow the weather and the position of the Sun much better than the system we use now.

Anyway, spare a thought for the poor people living on the tropic of capricorn who now have the Sun shine from straight above them. Must be awfully warm, and frankly I greatly prefer the cold and snow we are experiencing over here.