Q: is the winter solstice cold or cold?
A: the great cold is colder than the winter solstice.
The great cold is the last of the twenty-four solar terms. It is a severe cold when the sun reaches 300 degrees Huangjing around January 20 every year. At this time, the cold wave moves south frequently, which is the coldest time of the year in most parts of China. The wind is strong, the temperature is low, and the snow on the ground does not melt, showing a severe cold scene of ice, snow and cold. The great cold is the last of China's 24 solar terms. After the great cold, we usher in the solar term cycle of the new year.
On the winter solstice, the solar height in the northern hemisphere is the smallest and the daytime time is the shortest, but the temperature on the winter solstice is not the lowest. This is because when the direct point of the sun moves to the southern hemisphere, the temperature in the northern hemisphere begins to decrease a little. The cooling in the northern hemisphere is a continuous and slow process. On the winter solstice, when the sun shines directly on the Tropic of cancer, the earth's temperature is still decreasing with that downward trend. After the winter solstice, the direct point moves north to a certain extent, and the temperature in the northern hemisphere will slowly rise.
Although the direct sunlight point moves from the Tropic of cancer to the equator from the winter solstice. But the weather in the northern hemisphere has not turned warm. Because at this time, the cold air 'accumulated' in the North continued to go south. This extra sunlight is not enough to compete with it. So the coldest time of the year is the great cold.
This is similar to the fact that the hottest time of the day is not noon. After 12 noon, although the sun is a little off. But the heat is still increasing. So the hottest time of the day is usually around 2 p.m. Therefore, the coldest time is more than a month after the winter solstice, and the cold is the coldest solar term of the year.