Why is the shortest day before the middle of winter?

Question

I live in NZ, but I'm assuming that that is the same everywhere in the world.

The shortest day of the year for a place is when that place is the furtherest away from the sun that it will ever get that year. So why would that day not also be the coldest?

Answer 1

Because the atmosphere of the earth, just like something in the oven, takes time to change temperatures. Up here, in the Northern Hemisphere we just had the longest day--and summer's just getting started.