Warming Up in Springtime

The local news just reported that we are "finally warming up as the sun gets closer, err, the angle gets closer".  It is a deeply entrenched belief that things only feel warmer when they are closer.  Most people know that the Earth is not actually closer to the Sun in the summer, but I think the angle of the sun's rays argument confuses the issue because it's not intuitive for them. 

Why can't we just say that because of the axial tilt, in the spring the days get longer (while the nights get shorter) and we get more hours of sunlight and that's why we warm up?  Of course both are happening and contributing, but I think the hours of exposure is more intuitive.

It's not that we are stepping closer to the campfire to warm up, it's that as we spin in place, we are spending more time facing the fire than facing away from the fire...

Hours of daylight vs. Angle Effect graphs can be found here.

It's complicated, but I think this NASA site sums it up nicely:

"Although the length of the day is an important factor in explaining why summers are hot and winter cold, the angle of sunlight is probably more important." (emphasis mine)

When we emphasize the abstract angle argument to kids and they don't get it, they go right back to thinking we are farther away.  Start with the partial truth to replace the untruth and then work our way up methinks...