ELi5: In the Northern Hemisphere, why are the typically warmest days of the year after the longest days of sunlight?
In: 4
Imagine you are cold and so turn on a heater. You want it to heat up the room as fast as possible, so you crank it up to the highest setting. Once the room becomes warm enough, you turn it down the heater somewhat to maintain that temperature. Thus the room is the warmest after the period of the highest heater setting, not during that period.
Because it takes time to heat up the environment primarily the oceans. The result is the average temperature increase so long as the incoming sunlight is more than what is radiated away.
Winter is the coldest in January/February for the same reason but in reverse.
For the same reason the warmest part of the day is not at noon where you get the most light per square meter of ground. It is warmer in the afternoon because the sun can still heat up the ground more.
The coldest part of the day is usually after sunrise. Even if the sun it up it do not initially provide enough energy to counteract what is radiated away.
Imagine putting food in the microwave for ten seconds. That’s a warm day.
Put it back in for another twenty seconds. That’s an even hotter day. The food is now hotter.
Then you put it back in for ten more seconds. Sure, that’s not adfing as much heat as the hotter twenty-second ‘day’, but it’s still adding heat so the food is still hotter afterwards.
The weather depends on a lot of factors, not just sunlight.
Areas close to the ocean are very dependent on the ocean for their weather. Warmer water means warmer winds coming in from the sea.
The thing is that an ocean (or part of the ocean) takes a loooong time to warm up. But it also takes long to cool down. So when the sun starts weakening (relatively), the ocean is only just warm. Those sea winds will keep warming up oceanic winds for a month or longer. Those winds, paired with the still pretty strong influence of the sun, is what makes the days warmer.
Imagine you have a job where you get paid one dollar per hour of sunlight, and you have a lifestyle where you spend exactly the same amount of money each day— approximately $12*60 = $720 per day, or twelve hours’ worth.
When will you have the greatest amount of money in your bank account? It won’t be the day you get your biggest paycheck. After all, the next day, you’ll get almost as big a check, and still only have to spend the over-the-whole-year average amount of money. In fact, your balance will keep growing— by a little less each day, but still growing— until the autumn solstice, when you’ll reach break-even, and then start running a deficit.
Latest Answers