This was asked by my 12 year old daughter while we were driving through the mountains the other day. It was 90° for several hours of our trip, then we reached the Blue Ridge mountains and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Seemed to happen once we reached about 2500 feet above sea level. I rather clumsily tried to give her an answer about air at higher altitudes being less dense, but quickly realized I didn’t have all the facts. Hoping someone can help me explain it better, so I can break it down better and explain it to my daughter.
In: Physics
it’s because of the land area.
the sun doesn’t heat the air directly, it heats the ground, and then the ground heats the air. if you go up a mountain, there is simply less ground area for the sun to heat up then if you were, say, in the Great Plains of the Midwest.
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