38 Seasons and Sunlight-Mid

Seasons and Sunlight FOCUS Question How does the amount of sunlight in a day change during the four seasons?

Long and Short Days People say that summer has long days. How can this be? All days have 24 hours! The number of hours in a day does not change. But the time when the Sun comes up in the morning does change. So does the time when the Sun goes down at night.

Sometimes the Sun comes up early in the morning. Then it goes down late at night. On these days, there are more minutes of light. We call this a long day. Sometimes the Sun comes up late and goes down early. On these days, there are not as many minutes of light. We call this a short day.

Fall into Winter When fall begins, daytime and nighttime have the same number of minutes. Then the days get shorter. There are fewer minutes of light each day. Nighttime is longer than daytime. The weather becomes cool. Word Wise The fall season is also called autumn (AW-tum).

Cold Winter Days The Sun comes up later each day. It goes down earlier. Winter begins on the shortest day. This day has the fewest minutes of light all year. On a winter morning, it is dark and cold outside!

Spring Forward! Spring is coming! The Sun comes up earlier. It goes down later. Daytime gets longer. But it is still cold. It takes many weeks for the Sun to warm things up.