Winter

Winter is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. Almost all English-language calendars, going by astronomy, state that winter begins on the winter solstice, and ends on the spring equinox. Calculated more by the weather, it begins and ends earlier and is the season with the shortest days and the lowest temperatures. Either way, it generally has cold weather and, especially in the farther north, snow and ice.

Depending on place and culture, start and end of winter can be defined as above or in other ways. Contemporary meteorology takes winter to be the months of June, July, and August in the Southern Hemisphere, and December, January, and February in the Northern Hemisphere. However, many cultures in Europe and East Asia consider winter to begin in November.