– Why does it sometimes become colder in the morning just as the sun comes up?

Question

– Why does it sometimes become colder in the morning just as the sun comes up?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

The earth is always losing heat to space, right? So throughout the night it gets colder.

The first second the suns shines on the surface it will deliver just a bit of energy, not enough to compensate for the loss, so it will continue cooling, slower, until the amount of energy given by the sun is equal to the energy lost to space.

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In my experience its about 0.5 to 1 hour after sunrise in the tropics, faster in the equator, slower in the poles. But of course there are winds, tides, and other effects that make everything more complicated, but that’s mostly it.