Hamburg Germany January 6
The Port of Hamburg, Germany, on January 6, 2010
Snowfall in Pant Glas
Heavy snowfall overnight at Pant Glas, Gwynedd, 20th February 2010
Winter morning in the USA
One morning after a cold night in the US
In the Northern Hemisphere, some authorities define the winter period based on fixed astronomical points (i.e. based solely on the Earth's position in its orbit around the sun), regardless of weather conditions. In philippine phone number lookup one version of this definition, winter begins at the winter solstice and ends at the spring equinox.
These dates are somewhat later than those used to define the beginning and end of meteorological winter, generally considered to cover the whole of December, January and February in the Northern Hemisphere and June, July and August in the Southern Hemisphere.
Astronomically, the winter solstice, being the day of the year with the fewest daylight hours, should be the middle of the season, but the seasonal lag means that the coldest period typically follows the solstice by a few weeks.
In the United States and Canada (and sometimes in Britain) the season is considered to begin at the solstice and end at the following equinox; in the Northern Hemisphere, depending on the year, this corresponds to the period from December 21 or 22 to March 19, 20, or 21. In the United Kingdom, meteorologists consider winter to be the three coldest months of December,