Are winters colder in the northern or southern hemisphere?

Question

or are they the same?

Answer 1

In general, continents in the southern hemisphere are narrower than in the northern hemisphere, and most of the land is nearer the equator. So, apart from Antarctica, the winters in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere are not as cold as the winters in central United States, Canada, or Russia. Northern Europe's winters are warmer than expected for their latitude, though, because of the warm gulf stream current.

Answer 2

Winters are colder in the Northern Hemisphere

Answer 3

Good question and so far none of your readers has gotten the correct answer. So here we go. The earth is closest to the Sun in the northern hemisphere winter and farthest from the Sun in the northern hemisphere summer. Therefore the northern hemisphere winter is not as cold as the southern hemisphere winter. Also during the NH winter the earth's axis at the North Pole points away from the Sun, while during the SH winter the earth's axis at the South Pole points away from the Sun.

Answer 4

Most of the world's land mass is in the northern hemisphere and most of the southern hemisphere is ocean.

Seas and oceans store immense amounts of heat energy so the more ocean there is the warmer (comparatively) it will be. It's for this reason that most coastal areas avoid the extremes of heat and cold experienced further inland.

So in general it's the northern hemisphere that experiences the coldest winters, largely because there's less ocean there.

There's other complicated weather dynamics involved as well - going into them won't affect the answer it'll just complicate it.

Answer 5

They are *about* the same, in general. But ... the southern hemisphere has more ocean. And also the Earth is a bit closer to the Sun during the northern winter. It depends on where you are.

For example, Cape Town (South Africa, latitude 34 S) winters are about 7 C to 18 C.
And Jacksonville (Florida USA, latitude 30 N) winters are about 5 C to 19 C

Answer 6

Depends where you are in either hemisphere. Antarctica is very cold, but Zambia's winters are very mild in comparison and both are in the southern hemisphere. The same goes for the Northern hemisphere, think of Chad and say, Finland, both in the Northern hemisphere

Answer 7

I would suspect the northern hemisphere is colder,but what I dont understand for example is, I believe New York to be roughly on the same latitude as the Canary Islands yet they suffer quite severe winters. Why?

Answer 8

I think that global warming is increasing over land more than over sea. As there is more land in the northern hemisphere, i guess that temperatures are increasing up here more than down south, so winters might be getting milder in the northern hemisphere than the southern (if they aren't already).

Answer 9

I would have thought the northern hemisphere as the tilt of the earth towards the sun favours the southern hemisphere

Answer 10

if memory serves me correctly,I believe the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth was in antartica,however,beyond minus 40 degree's it makes little difference to you or I,its too cold no matter how you measure it.how can the southern hemisphere be any closer to the equator than the northern hemisphere(lily,???)