In the Northern Hemisphere, why are summers warmer than winters, even though the earth is actually closer to the sun in January?

Answer and Explanation

In the winter, because of the 23.5° tilt of the earth's axis, the sun's beams hit the earth's surface at an angle and subsequently cover a larger surface area making the heat less intense.

In the winter, the Earth is closer to the Sun. So the sun's rays spreads out to cover more area, making the heat per unit area, much reduced. In summer the Earth is further away from the sun, and focuses on less area, causing a much more intense heat flux (heat per unit area).

a mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain range, formed by plate tectonics. this uplifting of the ocean floor occurs when convection currents rise in the mantle beneath the oceanic crust and create magma where two tectonic plates meet at a divergent boundary.a geomagnetic reversal is a change in a planet's magnetic field such that the positions of magnetic north and magnetic south are interchanged.