Did you know?... 5 fun facts about winter

Just because December came and went in a flash of festive lights and seasonal cheer, it doesn't mean winter is over. This couldn't be farther from the truth, but to get you through it, here are five fun facts about the chilly season.

During our Winter season, the Earth is closest to the Sun. On January 3rd, the Earth will reach its perihelion, when it will be 3.1 million miles closer to the Sun than in July when we are a lot further away.

The coldest city in the United States is Fairbanks, Alaska. This is where the coldest temperature has been recorded, -66 F. And even though they recently went through a warm spell in December, the minimum average temperature in the coldest month is -16.9F

The snowiest city on Earth is probably not where you think it is. It’s actually in Aomori City in Japan. Here they received around 26 feet of snow every year!

It also snows where you would least expect it to. From the Sahara to Hawaii, snow has been recorded to fall. Even in the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, almost 80 cm of snow fell in 2011 due to a rare cold front from Antarctica.

Finally, when it snows, it can often look like a lot. However, every 12 cm of snow only equates to around 100 mm of water. This is because snow is mostly air. If you want to build a snowman though, physics has proven that wet snow is best as it is stickier.