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Today marks the beginning of the coldest 91 days of the season according to the long-term temperature averages – and is thus considered the start of meteorological winter. Although the daylight will begin to increase in just a few weeks, it will take an additional 4 to 5 weeks before temperatures reach their average annual minimum during the last week of January. This is because it takes land areas – and to a greater extent the oceans – a number of weeks to cool off, resulting in this effect, called “seasonal lag”.