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I have seen different cultures use the terms in different ways, but in general winter is based on the length of the days, climatological winter is based on coldest temperature and meteorological winter is often used the same as climate winter, but based on picking the three months which are coldest on average, and always using those same three months for record keeping. There are other differences in how the terms are used, but mostly it is people splitting hairs, and does not matter. If you want more information check out wikipedia or the NPR article on meteorologic winter.

Also note, because it takes time for the air over half the world to cool, there is a delay between the shortest day of the year, and the coldest average day of the year. Temperature keeps dropping after the shortest day of the year for a few weeks. You might think winter would run from six weeks before the shortest day, until six weeks after, or from before the coldest day until six weeks after, and in some places it does, but mostly it starts on the shortest day of the year. Some cultures define winter from the end of the growing season until the start of the next one, so like most basic words, there are a lot of definitions, so keep that in mind when explaining to your friends the version you think is correct.

So winter, without any adjective, is usually astronomical winter, based on the length of the days. It usually runs from the shortest day of the year, around late Dec in the northern hemisphere, until the days are exactly 12 hours, around mid March.

Meteorological winter is for record keeping, and is the three months that are usually the coldest, which in the northern hemisphere usually means Dec, Jan and Feb.

Climatological winter is based on average temperatures, and I have seen it used the same way as meteorologic winter, but I have also seen it used for picking the coldest day of the year, and having winter go from six weeks before until six weeks after.

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Q: What is climatological winter?
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When is the winter soltice start?

The official first day of the astronomical winter as mandated my the International Astronomical Union is December 21/22, 2011 (depending on the time zone) for the northern hemisphere and June 21, 2012 for the southern hemisphere.The official first day of the climatological winter as mandated by the World Meteorological Organization is always December 1 local time for the northern hemisphere and June 1 local time for the southern hemisphere.Canada and the USA customarily observe the astronomical winter while Australia and New Zealand observe the climatological winter. Preference for either of these methods varies in other western countries. Many east Asian countries use lunar dates to determine the beginning of winter and the other seasons.In temperate climates, an ecological winter can be determined that starts with the first regular snowfalls or when most hibernating animals have retreated to their winter quarters.It depends on what day it is?


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