It is the longest day, so it gets the most sunshine, why is it hotter latter in the summer when the days are getting shorter again???
In: 341
Very simply, it occurs early in the summer seasonal cycle. The ground and other objects in the environment have not yet heated as thoroughly and deeply as they will after several more weeks of summer.
Each season changes the ground temperature. A lot of our experience of heat comes from ground heat, as well as the air. Heat rises. A cooler ground absorbs heat rather than reflecting it back.
This goes for the other seasons as well – winter feels colder once the ground is thoroughly and deeply cold, and that can take weeks to peak.
Because thermal mass. Land and sea keeps warming up all through summer and only starts cooling again in the autumn.
It’s as much about the low you’re starting from as anything. The ground temperature is basically as low as you’re going to get to at night under a heat dome. Longer days lead to the ground warming up. Then the ground gets to its maximum in July when the sun is baking down all day in the still lengthy days. Fronts can push the warm air through but until the ground cools down the temps will still get very warm.
its pretty fucken hot where i am, it was in the 90s f today when typically we dont go above 75 too much or below 45 in the winter… not too many houses here have ac
Every day, each part of the earth gains heat from the sun while the sun is up and and also constantly loses heat to space. As long as heat in > heat out for the day in your location, tomorrow will (on average) be hotter. This is true all throughout the summer in most places, both before and after the summer solstice. The solstice would just be the day when the earth tends to heat up the most. In reality, things like clouds, wind and elevation add a little bit more randomness to the temperature day to day and place to place, but that’s the general pattern.
Wow, I posted this question hoping I might get an answer or two, and then got handed a crap day that wouldn’t let me sneak away from my work computer and check in. Imagine my surprise to see so many answers, and it is really great there were so many analogies.
Thanks everyone!
In a word: water.
It takes time for bodies of water to heat up. It starts happening before the first day of summer but it continues well beyond the first day of summer. Once they warm up those bodies of water stay warm and along with wind keep the surrounding air warm.
As the days get shorter in the fall the bodies of water slowly cool off.
From Google:
*It’s not the hottest day of the year because the Earth releases the energy it absorbs at various rates — but it never releases it instantly. The Earth will receive the most energy from the sun but will release that energy in late July or August, usually.*
It might help to separate the two things you are thinking about
Maximum heat gained in one day
Vs
Maximum temperature stored
Each day either adds to the stored heat or let’s more heat escape (cooling). The solstice is just the day we can add the most to the storage in one day. But we will add some tomorrow and the next day until we hit the max and then it begins to cool…
Note: this is a vast oversimplification but address the root concept.
because it’s the first day of summer, not the middle day of summer?
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