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Like all seasons, summer is the result of an astronomical fact of life. The earth is tilted on it's axis, twenty-three and a half degrees. As the planet moves in its yearly orbit, that angle causes the position of the northern hemisphere to change relative to the sun. In the winter, it's tilted away from the sun. In the summer, it angles towards the sun. Because of the planet's tilt, during the summer, sunlight hits the earth at a more direct angle. So the warming effect of the sunlight is more intense. Plus, the sun is at a highest point in the sky so there are more hours of sunlight to provide heat. The opposite is true for the southern hemisphere where the seasons are reversed. When we're angled towards the sun, they're angled away. So, when our Australian friends chill out in winter, we're headed for the beach.

There are some amazing Science behind how that golden strip of sand is created. The sand on most beaches begins not in the ocean but in it. Over time, withering by ice, wind, and rain breaks down rock in the sediment. Creeks and rivers wash the sediments down thre streams. Once in the ocean, currents of water called longshore currents, they flow parallel to the coast, carry those sediments along the shore line. Waves, then, push the sand along the shore forming beaches. Longshore currents can deliver up to million cubic yards of sediments to a single beach each year. Most waves that deliver sand to our beaches are formed thousands of miles away.

"Motion waves are created basically by the wind. The wind blow across the surface of the water and it agitates the surface of the water causing a wave to be formed. The longer the wind blows or the stronger the wind blows, the bigger the waves it's gonna create."

Waves are generated by wind, blowing across the surface of the ocean, energy from the wind is transferred to the wave through friction between the air and water. Wind that blows faster, longer and further will transfer more energy into the ocean and create bigger waves. Waves sometimes travel across vastic spaces of open ocean. In some cases, as far as ten thousand miles.

"Waves can travel across the entire ocean basin so a very strong storm in the southwest Pacific will create as well which can go all the way across the Pacific Ocean and impacting Mexico or the west coast of North America.

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