The Inconvenient Skeptic: The Comprehensive Guide to the Earth's Climate

by John Kehr

This is true even though the Earth is closest to the sun in January (at least for the next several hundred years). If the land and oceans warmed up the same then January should be the warmest month. Since it is one of the coldest months of the year, this is the first really big indicator that land plays a much larger role than oceans do in changing the average temperature of the Earth. It is also makes a big difference in WHERE the land is. The SH has very little land around the South Pole. The only large piece of land near the South Pole is Antarctica. That continent is surrounded by water. Since the poles experience the most change in weather from season to season the fact that the South Pole is land surrounded by water is very important. The NH is the opposite. The North Pole is water surrounded by land. So in the summer the land around the North Pole warms up much more than the ocean that surrounds Antarctica. So the NH warms up more in the summer than the SH. The reverse is true in the winter. The land around the North Pole (Asia, North America, and Europe) cools more than the ocean around Antarctica. Illustration 7: Southern Hemisphere is mostly open ocean. That is another part of why the NH has more temperature swing than the SH. It is also why Antarctica remains frozen and also why it has been frozen for such a long time. The water around it does not warm up enough in the summer to cause the air to warm up enough for it to thaw out. While it does warm up by a fair ...