Hi HN, you may be interested to know that the Earth is at its perihelion today, Jan 4th at ~1PM UTC. This is the point in its orbit at which the distance to the sun is at a minimum (~147M km).
The Earth is about 5M km closer to the sun than at its aphelion, the furthest point occurring in July at ~152M km. Compared to the aphelion, ~7% more solar energy reaches the Earth at the perihelion.
I can't speak for other Southern Hemisphere countries, but I understand this is partly why the Australian summer sun has such a "bite" to it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_orbit#Events_in_the_orbit
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