https://www.climate.gov/teaching/literacy/1-c-axial-tilt-earth-governs-incoming-sunlight-and-seasonality
1 c Axial tilt of Earth governs incoming sunlight and seasonality
c. The tilt of Earth's axis relative to its orbit around the sun results in predictable changes in the duration of daylight and the amount of sunlight received at any latitude throughout a year. These changes cause the annual cycle of seasons and associated temperature changes.
I know from 3rd grade science why we have summer and winter and so on because of the earth's tilt -- during the summer the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun; and the opposite at the other side of the orbit where the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun.
But why sunsets start getting later around Dec 9, and why sunrises start getting earlier after about Jan 2 (while the shortest day is the Dec 21 solstice), I haven't really understood that. I've looked up explanations that are really complicated and involved some "Equation of Time" or something like that. I figure it ultimately boils down to that the orbit is elliptical rather than circular.
Gotta run - this AM is my grocery trip. Tomorrow would be better, but that's Jobs Report day, and I want to be around to snuff out all the misinformation about "it's Christmas hires" (no, they are seasonally adjusted for that already) and "they don't count people who have exhausted their benefits" (the unemployment rate is not a count of people collecting unemployment insurance benefits, but a household survey) and so on. Or that Powell said the numbers are being fudged (no he did not, but he did say they believe the methodology is overestimating by about 60k/month, problems with the birth-death model mostly, a problem that has been getting worse for years, not just since Krasnov, I read the press conference in its entirety), or that according to Challenger Gray & Christmas, a net of 1.1 million jobs were lost in 2025 (no, that's just the layoffs part of it, and furthermore, those are ANNOUNCED layoffs, not actual layoffs. It doesn't include hires, announced or actual), etc. etc.
I'd provide links for all of the above (they aren't just my opinions), but gotta "saddle up" right now in order to catch the bus
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