150 Fun Facts About Winter

When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, what season is it in the Southern Hemisphere?

Australians and South Africans eat Christmas dinner in midsummer, and their meteorological winter runs June to August.

Meteorologists in the Northern Hemisphere count winter as which three months?

Astronomers start it later, at the December solstice, and run it to the March equinox.

What causes the seasons, including winter?

The axis leans 23.44 degrees from the plane of the orbit, so each hemisphere takes turns pointing away from the Sun.

Earth is actually closest to the Sun (perihelion) during which month?

It happens about two weeks after the December solstice, in the depths of the northern winter, which is why distance is not what makes winter cold.

On which dates does the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere fall?

The Sun is at its lowest arc in the sky; Newgrange in Ireland is aligned to its sunrise and Stonehenge to its sunset.

Newgrange in Ireland and Stonehenge in England are both aligned to the sunrise or sunset of which day?

Newgrange points to the solstice sunrise and Stonehenge to the solstice sunset, both built thousands of years before written calendars.

Snow crystals grow with six-fold symmetry because of what?

Every flake starts on a speck of dust and grows differently on its way down, which is why finding two identical ones is so unlikely.

How wide does Guinness list the largest snowflakes ever reported, at Fort Keogh, Montana, in 1887?

They were aggregates of many crystals stuck together, and the claim rests on the word of a ranch owner, but Guinness accepted it.

Who, from 1885, photographed thousands of snowflakes through a microscope, showing their variety?

The Vermont farmer, nicknamed Snowflake Bentley, worked in an unheated shed so his subjects would not melt.

Earth's lowest directly recorded air temperature, -89.2 °C, was measured in 1983 where?

Satellites have since seen surface temperatures near -98 °C on the East Antarctic plateau, but those readings do not count as official records.

At what temperature do the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales read the same number?

It is the one point where a Canadian and an American can agree on how cold it is without converting.

Paul Siple and Charles Passel devised the first wind chill formulas while stationed where?

They measured how fast a bottle of water froze in the wind; the index adopted by Canada, the US and the UK dates from 2001.

Inside the Arctic and Antarctic circles, what is the period when the Sun stays below the horizon over 24 hours called?

At the poles themselves it lasts about half a year; in Tromsø, Norway, it runs from mid-November to mid-January.

The 'borealis' in aurora borealis comes from the name of the ancient Greek god of what?

Aurora was the Roman goddess of dawn, and Galileo was already using the term in 1619; the southern lights are the aurora australis.

Roughly what fraction of an iceberg's volume floats above the water?

That follows from Archimedes and the density of ice, and it is where the phrase 'tip of the iceberg' comes from.

Pink 'watermelon snow' seen on mountains and glaciers is caused by what?

Chlamydomonas nivalis is a green alga that makes a red carotenoid; Aristotle wrote about the phenomenon more than 2,000 years ago.

Which is the only bird species known to hibernate?

Most birds migrate instead; some ground squirrels take hibernation further, cooling their bodies to below freezing for weeks.

Which amphibian survives winter frozen solid and is North America's only one found north of the Arctic Circle?

It stops breathing and its heart stops beating, then thaws out in spring and hops off.

Female bears do what during their winter dormancy?

Cubs are born blind, nearly hairless and tiny, and nurse in the den until spring.

The snowshoe hare's coat changes from brown in the warm months to what in winter?

Its oversized hind feet act like snowshoes, which is where the name comes from.

Which is the only penguin that breeds during the Antarctic winter, with males incubating an egg on their feet?

Males balance the egg on their feet through the dark for more than two months, huddling in their hundreds against the wind.

Reindeer are unique among deer because of what?

In North America the same species is called caribou; herds there make some of the longest land migrations of any mammal.

St Bernard dogs were originally bred for what job in the Alps?

The most famous, Barry, is credited with saving at least 40 lives; the brandy barrel around the neck is a myth traced to an 1820 painting.

In Greek myth, Demeter lets the earth go barren each winter because her daughter must spend that time where?

Persephone was tricked into eating pomegranate seeds, which bound her to a third of every year below.

In Russia, gifts at New Year are brought by Ded Moroz, whose name translates as what?

He travels with his granddaughter Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden, and officially lives in the town of Veliky Ustyug.

According to tradition, what happens if the groundhog sees its shadow on February 2?

Punxsutawney Phil has been consulted at Gobbler's Knob since 1887, but he was not given the name Phil until 1961.

Hanukkah lasts for how many nights?

It begins on the 25th of Kislev, and the menorah holds nine lights: one for each night plus the shamash that lights the others.

Chinese New Year always begins on a new moon that falls between which two dates?

The celebrations run for 15 days to the Lantern Festival, and each year takes one of 12 zodiac animals.

The Iranian festival of Yaldā, the longest and darkest night of the year, marks which event?

Families stay up late eating pomegranates and watermelon and reading the poetry of Hafez.

Which snowman, 122 feet tall and built in Bethel, Maine, in 2008, holds the record for the tallest ever?

She was named after Maine senator Olympia Snowe and had skis for eyelashes and truck tyres for buttons.

Which Renaissance artist was commissioned by Piero de' Medici to make a snowman in 1494?

He was 19 at the time; the earliest known picture of a snowman is a doodle in a 1380 Book of Hours.

The first Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924 in which town?

Norway leads the all-time medal table, and since 1994 the winter and summer games have been held two years apart.

Which country leads the all-time medal table at the Winter Olympics?

The United States and Germany are next; no Winter Games have ever been held in the Southern Hemisphere.

Curling stones are made of granite quarried mainly on Ailsa Craig, an island off which country?

The sport was played in Scotland by the early 1500s and is nicknamed the roaring game after the sound of the stones on pebbled ice.

Curling has been a full medal sport at the Winter Olympics since which Games?

It had appeared in 1924, but the IOC only retroactively upgraded that event to medal status decades later.

The sport of bobsleigh got its name from what?

The first sleds were built by British tourists in St. Moritz in the late 1800s, and four-man bobsleigh was in the very first Winter Olympics.

The 1993 film Cool Runnings was inspired by which country's bobsleigh team at the 1988 Calgary Olympics?

The team crashed in the four-man event but became the most famous debut in Winter Olympic history.

In the sliding sport of skeleton, what position does the rider take on the sled?

It began on the Cresta Run in St. Moritz and became a permanent Olympic sport only in 2002.

Biathlon combines cross-country skiing with which other skill?

Nordic combined is the one that pairs cross-country with ski jumping.

The word 'ski' comes from an Old Norse word meaning what?

Skiing began as a way of getting across snow in Scandinavia almost 5,000 years ago.

The first machine for resurfacing ice rinks was built in 1949 by Frank Zamboni in which US state?

He ran an ice rink in Paramount, near Los Angeles, and wanted to stop closing it for an hour every time the ice needed smoothing.

The Iditarod sled dog race, run each March, goes from Anchorage to which town?

It began in 1973 and covers close to 1,000 miles; contrary to legend it was not founded to commemorate the 1925 serum run.

Which Japanese city, averaging over five metres of snow a year, is called the world's snowiest?

Cold winds off the Sea of Japan pick up moisture and dump it on the city; in 1945 the snow lay 209 cm deep.

The single-season snowfall record, 1,140 inches, was set in 1999 at a ski area on which mountain?

That is about 29 metres of snow in one winter, enough to bury a nine-storey building.

Frost fairs were held on the frozen River Thames in London between which years?

They belong to the Little Ice Age, when the Baltic Sea froze over and Alpine glaciers swallowed villages.

The Great Blizzard of March 1888 helped persuade New York City to do what?

Up to 58 inches of snow fell in the Northeast and around 400 people died; the city's first underground line opened in 1904.

A nor'easter storm on the US East Coast is named after what?

They form off the coast between North Carolina and Massachusetts and are strongest from November to March.

The Winter War of 1939 to 1940 was fought between the Soviet Union and which country?

Finnish troops, nearly all trained on skis, held off a far larger army for three and a half months before the Moscow Peace Treaty.

In which year did the Christmas Truce on the Western Front take place?

About 100,000 British and German troops took part in the unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front.

Disney's Frozen was loosely inspired by which Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale?

It won Oscars for Best Animated Feature and for Let It Go, and was the highest-grossing animated film until 2019.

Who provides the voice of Olaf the snowman in Frozen?

Idina Menzel voices Elsa and Kristen Bell voices Anna; Jennifer Lee became the first woman to direct a Disney animated feature.

In C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the White Witch has kept Narnia in what state?

She wins Edmund over with Turkish delight; the book was published in 1950.

'Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!' was written in July 1945 under what conditions?

The lyrics never mention Christmas; Vaughn Monroe's recording was a hit by December.

In Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, 'Winter' is the concerto in which key?

The set was published in Amsterdam in 1725, each concerto paired with a sonnet describing the season.

In Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Jack Torrance takes a job as the winter caretaker of which hotel?

The film ends with Jack lost and frozen in the hedge maze, while a 1921 photograph raises more questions than it answers.

Frances McDormand won an Oscar as pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson in which 1996 film?

The Coen brothers also won Best Original Screenplay; the wood chipper became the film's most notorious prop.

Citizen Kane opens with Charles Foster Kane dropping which object as he says 'Rosebud'?

Snow globes had appeared at the 1878 Paris Exposition and were popularised by Austrian instrument maker Erwin Perzy.

The Maya drank early chocolate as a cold, foamy drink flavoured with which spice?

They ground the seeds with water, vanilla and cornmeal and poured the mix between vessels to raise a froth; London's first chocolate house opened in 1657.

Britain's 'Stir-up Sunday', for making Christmas pudding, falls how many Sundays before Christmas?

Small silver coins were once stirred into the mix for whoever found them in their serving.

The world's first ice hotel, rebuilt every winter from river ice, is in Jukkasjärvi in which country?

It grew out of an ice-art exhibition in 1989-90 when visitors asked to sleep in the gallery; it now opens each December to April.

Bonhomme, a seven-foot snowman in a red cap, is the mascot of the winter carnival held where?

The carnival has run every year since 1955 and features an ice palace and a canoe race across the half-frozen St. Lawrence.

The world's largest ice and snow festival is held in which Chinese city?

Blocks two to three feet thick are cut from the Songhua River; the festival drew more than 3.5 million visitors in 2025.

On which mountain was a record 231 mph wind gust measured in 1934?

The summit observatory still markets itself as the home of the world's worst weather.

Nanook of the North (1922), about an Inuk family in the Arctic, is often called the first what?

Director Robert Flaherty staged several scenes, which is why it is now called a docudrama as much as a documentary.

Antifreeze proteins were first isolated in the 1960s from what?

Arthur DeVries found them in notothenioid fish that swim in water colder than the freezing point of their own blood.

Graupel, or 'soft hail', forms when supercooled droplets freeze onto what?

The result is 2–5 mm balls of crisp, opaque rime.

In the UK and Canada, 'sleet' usually means what?

In the United States the word refers to ice pellets.

A US blizzard, by National Weather Service definition, needs winds of at least what speed?

Visibility must also drop to a quarter mile or less for three hours or more.

A snowslide of tightly packed snow set off by a collapsing weak layer is called what?

The other broad type is the loose snow avalanche.

Lake-effect snow occurs when cold air moves across long stretches of what?

Areas east of the Great Lakes are famous for it, as is northern Japan's west coast.

Ground must stay below 0 °C for at least how long to count as permafrost?

The oldest permafrost has been frozen for around 700,000 years.

Roughly what share of the Northern Hemisphere's exposed land is underlain by permafrost?

That amounts to about 18 million square kilometres.

How much ice must accumulate for the US Weather Service to call it an ice storm?

Ice storms are also called glaze events or silver storms.

Which arctic bird's feathers moult from white in winter to grey and brown in summer?

It is the official bird of Nunavut and, as the raicho, of three Japanese prefectures.

How many times a year does the Arctic fox shed its coat?

Its winter coat is lighter and its summer coat darker.

Which winter sport was first held at the Olympics at the 1908 London Summer Games?

Men's and women's singles were two of the four events in 1908.

Where was the first indoor ice hockey game played, on March 3, 1875?

The Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893 to Canada's amateur champion.

Under what name was the Stanley Cup commissioned in 1892?

It was first awarded in 1893 and later became the NHL's championship trophy.

In luge, how does the rider lie on the sled?

Luge joined the Winter Olympics in 1964.

Luge events were first included in the Winter Olympics in which year?

The United States Luge Association was not founded until 1979.

On a jumping hill, what is the 'K-point'?

Distance points are calculated relative to it.

Snowboarding became a Winter Olympic sport at which Games?

Its Paralympic debut came in 2018.

Sherman Poppen's 1960s snowboard precursor was nicknamed what by his wife?

Brunswick sold about a million of them over the following decade.

Nordic combined pairs ski jumping with which other discipline?

The Gundersen method turns jump results into start-time gaps for the ski race.

Alpine ski racing has been part of the Winter Olympics since which year?

A slalom-style competition was held in Oslo as early as 1886.

Which new event debuted at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics?

They were the first Games under IOC president Kirsty Coventry.

Which joint bid lost out to Milan–Cortina for the 2026 Winter Olympics?

The vote took place at the IOC session in Lausanne in June 2019.

Which city became the first to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics?

It hosted the Summer Games in 2008 and the Winter Games in 2022.

Napoleon's Grande Armée crossed which river to invade Russia in June 1812?

The retreat through the Russian winter destroyed most of the army.

Washington's army endured the winter of 1777–78 at which Pennsylvania encampment?

The encampment lasted six months, from December 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778.

The Donner Party spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in which mountain range?

Some members resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Which volcano's 1815 eruption caused 1816's 'Year Without a Summer'?

Global temperatures fell by 0.4–0.7 °C, hitting New England and Western Europe hardest.

The Great Frost of 1709 was the coldest European winter in roughly how many years?

France's resulting famine caused an estimated 600,000 deaths.

The Battle of the Bulge began on 16 December 1944 in which forested region?

Germany aimed to seize the port of Antwerp and split the Allied lines.

Shackleton's ship Endurance became trapped in the ice of which sea?

A second ship, Aurora, carried the expedition's Ross Sea party.

Saint Lucy's Day, marked in Sweden with candle crowns, falls on which day of December?

Lucia wears a white dress and a red sash symbolizing her martyrdom.

In Alpine folklore, the horned Krampus accompanies which figure on 5 December?

Krampus punishes naughty children with birch rods.

Boxing Day, 26 December, is also the feast day of which martyr in much of Europe?

The name may derive from church alms boxes opened for the poor.

Twelfth Night marks the end of Christmastide and the eve of which feast?

It falls on 5 or 6 January depending on how the twelve days are counted.

Three Kings' Day, 6 January, commemorates the visit of which group to the infant Jesus?

Eastern Christians know the feast as Theophany.

Candlemas, on 2 February, commemorates what event?

It is based on the account in Luke 2:22–40.

Winterlude is a winter festival held in which Canadian capital region?

It draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Which site, along with Susukino and Tsudome, hosts the Sapporo Snow Festival?

About two million people visited the festival in 2007.

Lohri, a bonfire festival celebrated in Punjab, usually falls on which day of January?

It is a harvest festival tied to Makar Sankranti.

During Japan's Setsubun in early February, people throw what to drive away demons?

The word for bean, mame, can be written as 'devil's eye'.

Burns Night suppers are held on or near which day of January?

The first supper in 1802 was mistakenly held on 29 January.

Imbolc, the Gaelic festival on 1 February, is also the feast day of which Irish patroness?

It traditionally marks the beginning of spring.

In Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, Leontes is king of where?

His friend Polixenes is King of Bohemia.

David Lean's snowy epic Doctor Zhivago (1965) was mostly filmed in which country?

It could not be shot in the Soviet Union, where Pasternak's novel was banned.

Irving Berlin's 'White Christmas' was written for which 1942 film?

Bing Crosby's version is the best-selling physical single ever, at over 50 million copies.

The animated film The Snowman (1982) was based on a picture book by which author?

Channel 4 first showed it on 26 December 1982.

Edith Wharton's wintry novella Ethan Frome is set in which fictional Massachusetts town?

Its climax is a tragic sledding accident.

Leonardo DiCaprio's frozen-frontier film The Revenant portrays which real frontiersman?

It is based partly on Michael Punke's 2002 novel about Glass's 1823 ordeal.

March of the Penguins, an Oscar-winning 2005 documentary, came from which country?

Luc Jacquet directed the film about emperor penguins.

In the film Ice Age (2002), what kind of animal is Sid?

Manny is a woolly mammoth and Diego a smilodon; it was Blue Sky Studios' debut film.

Oymyakon, Earth's coldest permanently inhabited settlement, is in which Russian republic?

Schools there close only if it is colder than −55 °C.

North America's record low of −62.2 °C was set in 1947 at Snag, in which territory?

It beat a 1910 record from Fort Good Hope.

Hypothermia is defined as a core body temperature below what?

Frostbite, by contrast, is tissue damage from freezing.

'Frosty the Snowman' was first recorded in 1950 by which singing cowboy?

Autry had scored a seasonal hit with 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' the year before.

The 1925 serum run to Nome carried antitoxin for which disease?

Twenty mushers and about 150 dogs covered 674 miles in five and a half days.

Which sled dog ran the longest and most dangerous leg of the 1925 serum run?

Togo's team covered 261 miles; Balto's ran only the final 55 miles.

Which US city's citizens raised funds in 1927 to buy the neglected sled dog Balto?

Balto's statue stands in New York's Central Park.

Igloos were traditionally used in Canada's Central Arctic and which area of Greenland?

The Inuit word iglu simply means a house.

Arthur Sicard completed the first practical snow blower prototype in which year?

He had described the concept as early as 1894.

Snowmobile pioneer Joseph-Armand Bombardier came from which Canadian province?

His Ski-Doo brand name became a generic term in Ontario and Quebec.

The world's first ski chairlifts were built in 1936–37 at which Idaho resort?

Union Pacific engineer James Curran developed the design in Omaha.

Cheese fondue was pushed as a national dish in the 1930s by which country's cheese union?

The Swiss Cheese Union wanted to boost cheese consumption.

Löyly, the steam and heat of a sauna, is a word from which language?

The oldest known saunas in Finland were pits dug into slopes.

Glühwein, popular at German Christmas markets, takes its name from what?

The name roughly translates as 'glowing wine'.

According to the OED, 'nog' in eggnog was originally what?

Another theory ties it to 'noggins', the small mugs bartenders served grog in.

A chocolate drink was an essential part of which culture by 1400 AD?

Cacao was first domesticated at least 5,300 years ago in present-day Ecuador.

The earliest known depiction of a snowman is in a Book of Hours from which year?

It is a marginal illustration in a Book of Hours held in The Hague.

Research suggests the earliest ice skating took place more than 4,000 years ago where?

Bone skates about 3,500 years old have been found in north-west China.

The word 'toboggan' most likely comes from which language family?

Possible sources include the Mi'kmaq tepaqan and Abenaki odabôgan.

Ded Moroz's granddaughter and helper, Snegurochka, has a name meaning what?

Ded Moroz delivers gifts under the New Year Tree on New Year's Eve.

The 1967 NFL 'Ice Bowl' pitted the Green Bay Packers against which team?

The 1977 Grey Cup was also nicknamed the Ice Bowl.

Which Saint Petersburg residence, stormed in 1917, houses the Hermitage Museum?

It was the Romanovs' official residence from 1732 to 1917.

Britain's 'Winter of Discontent' of 1978–79 was marked by widespread what?

Unions demanded pay rises above James Callaghan's government limits.

The 'nuclear winter' hypothesis says firestorms would inject what into the stratosphere?

The soot would block direct sunlight from reaching Earth's surface.

Winter wheat needs vernalization, a cold period of what length, before it can head?

It is planted in autumn and resumes growth in early spring.

Which Austrian instrument-maker popularised the snow globe and won its first patent?

Snow globes appeared at the 1878 Paris Exposition; Perzy's Vienna shop still operates.

Snowdrops belong to the genus Galanthus, a name meaning what in Greek?

The genus has around 20 species and was named in 1753.

Which Alberta city's Deep Freeze Festival holds a chainsaw ice-carving contest?

With power tools, some ice sculptures can be finished in ten minutes.

Ski warfare was first recorded in the 13th century by a historian from which country?

Saxo Grammaticus described ski-equipped troops.

Which North American monument, like Stonehenge, aligns with the winter solstice?

It lies in Illinois, near the ancient city of Cahokia.

In what year did Sweden's Icehotel, rebuilt every winter at Jukkasjärvi, first open?

It stands about 17 kilometres from Kiruna and is rebuilt from December to April each year.

How thick did the ice on the Thames in London get during the Great Frost of 1683–84?

The river stayed completely frozen for two months in the most severe freeze recorded in England.

A curling stone inscribed with which date was found when an old pond was drained at Dunblane, Scotland?

A second stone bore the date 1551, and the world's oldest football is kept alongside them.

Why is curling nicknamed 'the roaring game'?

The word curling first appeared in print in 1620, in a poem by Henry Adamson of Perth, Scotland.

The record 122-foot snowwoman built in Bethel, Maine, in 2008 was named in honour of whom?

Bob Eckstein, author of The History of the Snowman, traces snowmen back to medieval marginalia.