Technically, on the solstice the sun is warming up the hemisphere for the longest/shortest time…
In: Planetary Science
The same reason that the day isn’t hottest at noon or coolest at midnight.
The Earth has a huge thermal mass. It takes a lot of energy to heat it up and it releases a huge amount of heat as it cools down.
The Sun is hottest at noon, but still hot after that, until it sets. That means that 3 or 4PM is the hottest part of the day, the heat that arrived after noon continues to warm the planet. Similarly, the Earth cools as long as there isn’t sunlight where you are measuring, so the night is coldest just before sunrise.
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