This evening at 10:59 pm eastern summer time the Earth is at perihelion, its closest point to the Sun for the year. At this point we are 147.1 million km from the Sun. Though this distance is 5 million km less than the distance at our furthest point in July, it has little effect on the temperature.
The Sun seen through cloud on 5 October 2012. Photo Nick Lomb
I dont know about it having little effect on temprerature … We are deffently feelih the heat here in brissy!”!
Hello Ammie. Yes, I have heard of the hot weather in Brisbane and elsewhere in the country. However, the main driver of heat in summer is not that we are slightly closer to the Sun, but that the tilt of the Earth is such that the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun. In six months’ time the northern hemisphere will be tilted towards the Sun and people there will be experiencing summer despite the Earth being then at its furthest from the Sun.