The question pretty much sums it up. How TF is the asphalt 20-40° hotter than the air when it’s super hot?
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Heat can travel through conduction, convection and radiation. Conduction is the transfer of heat through an object (you touch a hot pan and you feel the heat), convection is through a liquid (you can “see” the conduction in a pot of water being heated) and radiation is through electromagnetic waves (think of the outdoor heat lamps you see at restaurants).
Heat is just energy and it will naturally move from high energy to low energy. Everything has energy, without energy it just wouldn’t exist (temperature is measure in Kelvin with 0k (-273c or -459f being 0 energy).
There is nothing between the Sun and Earth so the heat is not moving by conduction or convection. It must be moving through radiation. The radiation is energy traveling as an electromagnetic wave until it hits something, in this case it’s hitting the Earth. This energy hits the surface of the Earth and the surface gains energy (heat). This then transfers to the air near the surface of the Earth by conduction (because there are physical particles in the air). This now heated air can then move via convection, and new cooler air takes its place.
As it’s the Earth heating the air by conduction and the hot air moving away by convection the air is not as hot as whatever is in direct view of the sun.
Additionally air temperature is measured in the shade so the thermometer is not measuring the energy from the sun directly.
Energy moves Sun > Earth > Air
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