Say you store a vehicle outside all winter, if there was an usually cold week, say -20 degrees Fahrenheit for example, is it possible for the car to be colder than the -20 since it sat weeks prior to the -20 temps?
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There are a couple of things at play here…
the first is Newton’s law of cooling, which means that all objects in an environment will eventually reach the same temperature. The thermal mass of an object and the temperature difference play a large part in how long that takes – and it works both ways. An object that’s been sitting in a cold environment for an extended time will be colder than a warmer surrounding environment for a period of time until it reaches equilibrium.
The second is perception – when you touch an object that has significant thermal mass and is colder than your body temperature, it will immediately begin absorbing heat energy from your body – which makes it feel colder. You are at the same time warming that object up a very small amount.
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