A friend asked me why it always seemed to get a little colder right after Sunrise. Figured I might as well share the answer... Between sunset and sunrise, the Earth’s surface gathers no solar energy but continues to radiate away its stored heat. During the night, the surface also loses radiant heat faster than it steals heat from other sources, and thus its temperature, and that of the air in contact with it, drops steadily. At dawn, when the first light beams across the landscape, the incoming solar radiation is very weak. It does not yet have enough strength to counter all the heat escaping from the surface. As a result, the surface continues to lose heat for some time following sunrise, and the air temperature continues to fall. At some point, the solar rays shine strongly enough to counter the heat loss. The gain-loss balance is shifted, and the air finally begins to warm up. As a rule of thumb: the coldest temperature is about an hour after sunrise.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 14:39:57 +0000
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