Did the first explorers of the Southern Hemisphere understand why it would be sunny in December?

by 0111011101100001

I made this mistake a couple of years ago. I boarded a flight in a -3(C) London Heathrow and touched down a day later in a 35(C) Melbourne with 4 layers on.

(You can tell I don’t study meteorology).

But without satellite data, and only strong assumption, how did any of the first explorers understand this?

drylaw

Questions on this come up from time to time and there's an faq section on the reversal of seasons. This great answer is especially interesting for you:

Did the first European explorers understand that the Southern Hemisphere experienced reversed seasons and why? What did they think about the so called Torrid zone? (with a focus on the Portuguese in Africa) by /u/terminus-trantor

I've also written about this for a slightly later period, on

how scholars in 16th century Spanish America explained the reversal of seasons, and how their findings differed from classical authors

Hope this helps!