why is it colder aT HIGHER ELEVATIONS when you are closer to the sun?
148133
ok, the relationship between altitude and temperature is not constant.  at sea level it is on avg 288.26 kelvin.  the temperature falls as you get higher until you are at about 11 km at which point the temperature remains constant.  the temperature fromm 11 km through 25 km from sea level is 216.66 Kelvin.  and then after 25km it starts getting warmer as you get higher until you reach 47 km and then it again becomes constant, this time at 282.66 kelvin and stays constant until 53 km.  after 53 km it continously gets colder again.  And if you go really high, it just keeps getting warmer again after 90km as you leave earth and enter space because then there is nothing between you and the the full force of the suns energy.  So if you go high enough, between 47 and 53 km, it is actually not that much colder than on the ground.  these temperatures and altitudes are based on standardized data, meaning that it is not going to be exactly the temperature everywhere at a given altitude, just like it is not 288.66 kelvin everywhere on earth, they are standardized avgs., but when engineers design airplanes, these are the numbers they use.  \n\nthe reasoning for all this is a combination of what everyone else has already mentioned.  it is the result of density, distance from the earth, radiation, etc.  See, at sea level it is warmer b/c the atmosphere traps the suns energy.  as you get higher, you get further away and it gets colder since the atmosphere it thinner(less dense) and doesnt trap as much heat.  then it levels off and starts getting warmer because the atmosphere is thinner.  this time the thinner atmosphere doesnt block as much of the suns energy and radiation, causeing it to get warmer again.  then once you get really high, it just keeps getting warmer as you enter space.  other factors are that the composition of the air changes with altitude, like the o-zone layer for example, is different from the air at sea level.\n\nhttp://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/explain/thermal/std_atm.html\nhere's a link to a graph showing how the temperature changes with altitude.  you can find tables with the exact values used to create the graph in engineering textbook or the internet as they are very common
847528
It's because the tops of mountains has colder temperature than the bottom, that warm air rise up from the earth's heat to the air where they condense, form into clouds around the tip of the mountain is the land which is most coldest. At that position, it is a spot where clouds can be seen most often.
636659
Mountains are higher in altitude than the plains.\n\nThe higher you go, the less atmospheric gases there are. This is due to the fact that gravity holds these gases close to the surface.\n\nAir holds heat. If you have less air then there will be less heat.\n\n:)
417406
Cold falls, right! The higher you are in altitude, the colder it gets!
141597
If there was no sunshine and no vertical air motion, cold air would settle to the surface, and temperature would increase going up in the atmosphere (and we'd all be dead soon ;) ). Because the ground is always radiating away heat (though often receiving more during daytime from the sun), there is a tendency for that to occur. Note the polar regions for example - during winter there is a semi-permanent temperature inversion (increase of temperature with altitude).\n\n2 things which counter the tendency for inversion are solar heating and vertical air motion.\n\nSunshine heats the ground, heat is conducted to air directly above the ground, and convection transports it up into the atmosphere. Cooling/heating of air by radiation is a slower process, so heat builds as spring and summer progress (at mid & high latitiudes) - especially in the lower atmosphere.\n\nAir moving vertically in the atmosphere (up or down) does so at the adiabatic lapse rate, which is 10 °C per km for dry air and less for saturated air (varies depending with temperature - averages about 6-7°C per km). Rising air cools at that rate, and subsiding air heats at the rate. Thus vertical air motions act to heat the lower atmosphere and cool the higher.\n\nThe combined effect of those, as a few people mentioned, is that temperature on the average decreases with altitude in the troposphere - at a rate of 6.5 °C per km (3.6 °F per 1000 ft.). Yet the lapse rate varies depending on conditions. Air during a clear night normally increases directly above the surface, strong inversions may occur during winter and ahead of warm fronts, and air can decrease at the dry adiabatic rate or briefly greater during a warm, sunny spring day. Etc.
990446
It's true that there isn't much air up high to hold heat and pass it on to you. But you'd be surprised at how short a distance you have to go to feel a big difference in temperature. Mountains that are only several thousand feet tall have permanent ice caps. The heat from the sun goes straight through the atmosphere. Much of the UV and other radiations are filtered but the longer waves go straight through until they get stopped and absorbed by the ground. The majority of the heat is then reflected back up from the ground to fill a very small layer. Try going to the top of a very tall building on a hot day, the temperature change should be noticeable there too.
970970
This is not a simple answer to explain in one or two sentences, so I will give it in two parts.  First, the basic reason:\n\nOvernight, the breezy conditions that was on the surface is lifted upwards.  This is because the surface becomes very stable with the loss of daytime heating.  The wind will blow above this layer of stable air until after sunrise when daytime heating will bring the winds back to the surface.\n\nNow the more detailed explaination.  In general, wind at night will decouple from the surface if...\n-there is no strong subsidence (sinking of air) like what you will find behind a strong upper level disturbance.\n-there is strong mixing (unstable airmass) in and ahead of a storms system\n-there is strong surface winds with upper level support. (winds blowing from the same direction through a deep layer above the surface)\n-near ridge or hill tops\n\n(Assuming no major weather changes are expected to occur overnight...)  During the night, with the loss of daytime heating, we lose two parameters that will keep the winds blowing near the surface.  The thermal gradient usually becomes weak and the surface cools.  A thin stable layer forms near the surface as heat rises to the top of this layer.  With time, this layer will thicken as warm air continues to leave the lower layer and replace by cooler air.  The top of this layer, you will find a temperature inversion.  This layer will seperate the higher winds that has lifted higher in the atmosphere and the very stable and near calm winds below.  Once the sun rises, the surface warms and starts to mix.  This will break the inversion and the winds will start to mix back down to the surface.  \n\nThis is also the reason why during the winter, sometimes you will find ground fog forming in a thin layer during the evening and then lifting to a low cloud or stratus right by sunrise; then "burning" off during the day.
11578
It's a long winded explanation - see link below.\n\n(snip)\nthe sun's heat acts almost the same as the sun's light — it passes through the air almost as though the air wasn't there.\n\nThis means that almost all of the sun's heat goes into warming up the oceans and the land it hits. As the oceans and ground warm up, they warm the air next to them, and this air warms the air a little higher up and so on. But, as you go higher, there's less and less heat available to go up, and the air gets colder.\n(snip)
674689
It's because of the lower pressure with the higher altitude.  Remember the phase diagram denotes the phase of a particular compound in terms of the pressure and temperature.  If you're sufficiently talented with respect to the maths, refer to a physical chemistry text and research upon chemical equilibrium and dG/dn.\n\nhttp://www.freewebs.com/chemistryhomework\n\nEDIT:  \n\nYou said:\n------------\nThe phase diagram doesnot explain this.\nYou forgot that it takes higher pressure to shift the freezing point higher in the phase diagram, not lower pressure like up in the mountain.\n--------------\n\nIncreasing the pressure makes it easier to melt ice, e.g. the pressure exerted by ice skates result melted ice at the surface, this is a common excerpt in introductory chemistry texts.  Again, also consider dG/dP and chemical equilibrium.
176083
Maybe the ground temperature is hotter. Its temperature doesn't count on outside factor. The sun is just 1 factor.
801912
First the distance change is totally negligible.  Also, unless the mountain is near the equator and you are climbing around noon, you are usually not getting closer anyway.\n\nThat said, the sun does not give much heat in the form of heat.  The sun gives energy in the form of mostly visible light.  That light gets absorbed by opaque object, namely the ground, which then re-emits infrared (heat) energy. So, technically, climbing a mountain gets you further from the bulk of the energy re-emitter.\nBut the real reason of the cool down of altitude is due to the drop in atmospheric pressure.  Take a volume of air at sea level, and bring it up to altitude.  Because of the lower pressure, that air will expand. But any expanding gas cools, and that explains why the air gets colder the higher you get.
393129
FIrst the temperature-It is extremely cold in the winter, and cool in the summer.  Then generally the wind-wind can play a major role, especially in mountainous tundra-also in mountainous tundra is the problem of UV radiation.
1129634
As you go up in altitude, the air does get cooler since it's less dense, and can therefore retain less heat.  However, this heat loss is 2 degrees Celcius per 1000 feet.  So, for the height of a three story house, at about 35 feet, the cooling effect would be .07 of a degree.  Hardly enough to notice.  You have to go much higher than your house to notice any cooling effect.  The air near the surface is constantly in motion, and you can't measure differences over such a short scale.\n\nAnyway, as others have stated, hot air rises, and unless you have a large vent on your top floor, it will collect there and heat the upper floors.
1017029
That's not the way it works...in the summer, it's warmer because the earth tilts on it's axis towards the sun...the suns radiation then has a direct 'shot' at us. In the winter the earth tilts away from the sun, and the suns rays have to go through much more of the atmosphere to get to us...\n\nAs for being cooler...I think it has to do with air pressure at higher altitudes, and being further from the heat being reflected off the ground...
1125684
Cooling occurs from the ground up. The ground is always radiating away heat and during night there's no heat received from the sun. Thus a calm & clear night tends to become colder as it progresses, and the temperature is lowest directly above the surface and increases going up - may be several °F colder a foot above the ground than where the thermometer is at about 6-7 feet.\n\nSome sunshine is recieved with the twilight before sunrise, but very little. Even after sunrise, obstructions along the horizon can prevent heating of the ground right away. Once the ground  is heated, it doesn't take long for the temperature at 6-7 feet above ground to increase - yet that is often after sunrise - especially with a snow cover which does not absorb sunlight well.\n\nA phenomenon which can sometimes contribute to this is that with the first significant amount of heating, convection mixes the air right above the ground. As mentioned previously, that cooler air in the first foot or so can be kicked up and brought across the sensor at 6-7 feet for a brief time before the entire layer mixes and is warmer. A minimum temperature record was broken at KMPO airport this past December 14 that way - temperature decreased from -3° to -9° over a period of about 20 minutes just after sunrise. I had 2° only 3 miles away & 300 feet lower - occured here too, but not as much.\n\nDuring a cloudy or breezy night, none of the above applies.
253562
Got to be honest. I became more and more confused about a topic that I used to understand so well with that first response. Although a lot of that is facts, it is overcomplicated at some parts and tough to get a hold on what is actually being described. No disrespect to rizzo though, I realise that everything he wrote is correct so he knows what he's talking about, I just think it would be hard for anyone else to.\n\nMaybe this description will be slightly less dizzying:\n\nAll heat is from the sun. Most of what comes from the sun is short-wave radiation, from 400nm down. Air is not heated very much from the sun, but the ground is. This is because the ground can absorb the short-wave incoming radiation, air cannot (well, only a little bit). The air is mostly heated by the longer-wave radiation that comes from the ground when it gets heated up, which heats the water molecules in the air (that's why humid regions get hotter than dry regions). \n\n*Note: Extremely dry air can be heated too, but that requires continuous exposer to sunlight. As soon as the sun is gone, it gets cold fast. Also it gets colder faster with altitude in dry regions.*\n\nAnyways. Up high, on top of being farther away from the ground, there is also less water molecules to absorb heat (and less molecules total to be heated up at all. So it absorbs less radiation. That is why it is colder. Simple. \n\nNo "adiabatic" mumbo jumbo. But adiabatic cooling is also simple. When air rises, the pressure on it decreases and it expands. The heat will be spread out over more volume, so the air will cool. This is the more complicated reason why the farther away from the ground you get, the colder the air is.\n\nAlso, there is something called an inversion. In this case, the air actually gets hotter as you go up. This happens when a warm air mass is forced up over a denser cold air mass because it is lighter. When this happens, the air is stable (it won't rise). This can result in people getting to choke on their own pollution for a couple of days because the crap they spew up in the air won't rise anymore. It's poetic.
536458
The higher you go the thinner the air, if there is less air then there is less mass to hold the heat from the sun.