But it also means that something else that most people would barely notice: spring gets shorter every year by about 30 seconds to a minute.
And that’s caused by a tiny quirk in the atmosphere. As time marches on, spring will continue to lose time to summer. That’s because the Earth’s tilt on its axis changes slightly over time, and since the length of the seasons is related to that tilt (and not by how close it is to the sun), it would naturally affect the length of the seasons.
Astronomer Larry Gerstman tells the website Live Science that it’s not only just spring but also other seasons. As time goes on, winter will lose time to fall. Summer still is the longest season, with an average 94 days, followed by spring at 93, fall at 90 and winter at 89.
Spring ends at the summer solstice and Gerstman says that the slight changes in the Earth’s tilt means the planet will each year reach the solstice at slightly different times. And since the Earth’s orbit around the sun is not a perfect circle but rather elliptical, the Earth is not always the same distance from the sun.
The largest change, Gerstman adds, won’t be noticeable for many thousands of years. Spring will be four days shorter in the year 8680, for instance.
