The Earth is farthest from the sun today, so why is it so hot?

All-time heat records were set worldwide this week in North American cities, including Denver, Colorado; Burlington, Vermont; and Montreal, Quebec; as well as in the cities of Europe and Russia. But here is something that could baffle you: Today is also the day of aphelion – the day in the orbit of the Earth where it is farthest from the Sun. Which give?

I know that you, reader of Gizmodo know very well how the seasons work. But maybe someone you know thinks that the hottest part of the year is when the Earth is closest to the Sun. So, let's break it down.

The Earth moves in an ellipse around the Sun. At its farthest point, which occurred today, July 7 at 2:46 am from AEDT, the Earth was 152,095,556 km from the Sun. On average, it is about 150 million km from the Sun, and January 4, 2019, it will be 147,099,761 km from the Sun.

This is not a huge difference, if you think about the immensity of space. Instead, the seasons are determined by the direct rays of the sun, which is determined by the tilt of the Earth.

The Earth tilts at an angle of 23.5 degrees in its orbit around the Sun. This means that during the month of June and the neighboring months, the northern half of the Earth will be directed towards the Sun, and during the month of January and the surrounding months, the southern half of the Earth will be directed towards the Sun. During the months of March and September, sunlight also hits both hemispheres.

The more direct the sun's rays, the more light reaches the Earth per unit area. Remember to hold a pile of straws, where each straw is a sunbeam, and try to insert them into the glbad, the surface of the Earth. If the edge of your glbad aligns with the straws, more of them will fit only if you hold the glbad at an angle to the straws. No more straws, no more rays; more rays, more energy; more energy, more heat.

As to why the northern hemisphere is so particularly hot right now, well, it's complicated. It's been there, so you should expect it to be hot, and you should also expect random fluctuations such as sometimes it gets warmer than normal – and no, you can not blame a single statistical blow in the heat of the Earth. climate change. Greg Porter to The Washington Post explains that there is a thermal dome on the northern half of the Earth – a region of high pressure a few kilometers into the atmosphere compresses the l? air, adding to the summer heat.

But you can not let climate change get out of this. As things tend to get warmer, we can expect to see oppressive heat waves like these more often. And we are doing it – 2015 was the second hottest year ever recorded, 2016 was the hottest year ever recorded, and 2017 was the hottest third year ever recorded, according to the NOAA

Someone on Twitter me to another interesting fact – the whole earth is warmer during the aphelion. It's true that sunlight is a little less intense when Earth is further away from the Sun, maybe seven percent less, according to an old NASA document. But there is much more land in the northern hemisphere and the land is generally warmer than water (its heat capacity is lower). Even though the Earth is closer to the Sun in January, this heat is spread over the ocean harder to heat.

Also, as noted by McGill astronomer Kelly Lepo, the days are longer when the axis is inclined towards the Sun, more time for the Earth to receive the Energy of the rays and be warmer

I know you probably think, "uh, I already knew it." But I promise you have colleagues, friends and relatives who think it's the hottest when the Earth is closest to the Sun. Sharing this knowledge will make you very popular at parties.