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???
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A good way of thinking about it is when we have our first hot day of the year and get out a paddling pool.
The tap water we fill with will be cool and need time to heat up in the sun at first, so (unless you fill with warm water) swimming on a long hot day, the water will still be pretty cool. Let’s say tap water is 5c.
The pool takes 4 hours to warm from 5c to a max of 15c on day one, that’s +2.5 degrees per hour.
However, the pool doesn’t cool all the way back down to 5c overnight, it **stores** some of that heat.
So the next day if the starting temperature is 10c, it will only need 2 hours of the same sun to heat it to the same 15c.
TLDR: The Earth is a giant radiator that can store lots of heat and release it slowly over time, this stored heat adds to the heat generated throughout the day by the sun and has an accumulative effect.
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