10 Cool Facts About Winters

Winter is the coldest season of the year. On winter mornings, the sun rises late. The coldest part of the year starts in mid-November and lasts until March. Winters encourage us to enjoy a variety of activities such as snowball fights, snow play, ice hockey, and more. It’s a great time for kids to relax and enjoy their vacations while snuggling up in their blankets.

1. During the winter, the sun’s rays strike the earth at a shallow angle. These rays are more scattered, which minimizes the amount of energy that strikes any given spot. Also, the long nights and short days of winters prevent the earth from warming up. Thus, we have winter!
2. When we are close to the December solstice, each solar day is about 24 hours and 30 seconds long. This means that it takes a bit longer than 24 hours for the sun to reappear in the same place in the sky from one day to the next.
3. Although the duration of daytime at the Equator remains 12 hours throughout the year in all seasons, the duration at all other latitudes varies with the seasons. During the winter season, the daytime is shorter than 12 hours; during the summer, it lasts longer than 12 hours.
4. In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter season generally starts on December 21 or 22. This is the winter solstice, this day of the year receives the shortest period of sunlight as the day is the shortest in the year. The seasons in the Northern Hemisphere are the opposite of those in the Southern Hemisphere. This means that in Argentina, Brazil, and Australia, winter begins in June.
5. The coldest temperature ever recorded on earth is -89.2 degrees Celsius (-128.5 degrees Fahrenheit) at Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983.
6. There is an insect in New Zealand known as Mountain Stone weta. It has a marvelous ability to survive in the winters. The insect turn frozen solid in the winter season and come out alive in summers.
7. Switzerland holds the world record for the biggest igloo ever built. A crew of 18 people constructed the giant ice structure measuring an impressive 10.5 m tall, with a vast internal diameter of 12.9 m (42 ft 4 in). It was built in just three weeks, using approximately 1,400 blocks of snow.
8. Austria is home to the world’s tallest snowman ever built. The snowman was nicknamed “Riesi,” which roughly translates as “giant” in the English language. It measured a gigantic 38.04 meters in height.
9. Each winter season, about a septillion (1 followed by 24 zeroes) snowflakes fall on the United States soil.
10. Every winter, about 10 million tons of road salt is used by United States. Salt is used on the roads because salt first breaks up the film of liquid water that is always present on the surface, thereby lowering its freezing point below the ice’s temperature. When Ice comes in contact with salty water, therefore it melts fast.