10,000 years from now will winters in Moscow be shorter?

Question

This is a physics question.

Winter is from the winter solstice to the vernal equinox

Tricky question. You have to know that because the earth's orbit is closest to the sun in winter (Northern Hemisphere), that winter is the shortest season by a couple of days.

Due to the precession of the equinox and anomalistic precession, summer and winter will be reversed. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession_%28astronomy%29#Anomalistic_precession . Therefore Northern Hemisphere winters will be longer, not shorter. (And the reverse applies in the Southern Hemisphere)

Answer 1

Let me turn this into a philosophy question.
If via global warming, the average earth temperature continues to increase, and suppose that means that the daily temperature in Moscow continues to increase. THEN the period of cold weather will be shorter. However we will still call it winter because of how we define the 4 seasons.

Then again, if the temperature continues to increase, mankind may become extinct, and thus a major contributor to global warming will be removed. In that case the long term temperatures will not increase indefinitely.

There are quite a few other contingencies though.

Answer 2

If this question is about global warming, then it is controversial, and therefore not really scientifically founded because no one knows enough about the future of weather. They can't even predict if it will rain next Tuesday...

However, global warming can lead to global cooling very easily. That would make for long observed winters.

This phenomenon could occur if increased global temperatures cause water to evaporate, thus producing an increase in sunlight-reflecting cloud cover. That would produce sudden temperature decreases that can trigger another ice age.

Or, if enough greenhouse gases are present, the Earth could become like Venus. If that would happen, there would be no winter - anywhere on Earth...

Of course, winter really is defined as going from December 21± until March 21±, depending on the position of the Earth and Sun.