North Pole January Darkness

The North Pole gets zilch amount of sunlight in January and because of this, it experiences 24 hours of darkness.

Obviously, this is the affect of the different seasons. But unlike what the majority of the people think, the orbit of the Earth has barely any effect on the seasons. It is the 23.45 degree tilt of Earth's rotational axis that does it.

When the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing winter, and the Southern, summer, the latter hemisphere gets approximately 3 times more sunlight as the Northern. (see image below)

Bottom line: the difference in the quantity of sunlight reaching the group in the Northern and Southern hemispheres is what causes the seasons.








[Source: HowStuffWorks "What causes the seasons?", HowStuffWorks image]