what is the relationship between temperature and altitude?
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.
1136431
Should be simple.  Warm air rises because it is less dense than cool air.  Cool air rushes in to replace the rising warm air.\n\nPlug this simple formula into the complex real world of spinning globe, equitorial heat and polar regions & you get weather.
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.
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.
139400
the air gets thinner as you rise in elevation.  the thin mountain air doesn't trap the heat as well as the thick air near sea level does.
769934
It's the actual temperature with humidity, wind chill factor (if applicable), dew point and other conditions taken into consideration. There's actually a mathematical equation to figure it out but it may be hard to find since the calculations are done by computers these days.
28165
climate or atmosphere
941373
Within limits,as temperature increases,so does the amount of O2 released from the hemoglobin.Heat is a byproduct of the metabolic reations of all cells and the heat released by contracting muscle fibers tends to raise body temperature.Metabolically active cells require more O2 and liberate more acids and heat.The acids and heat, in turn, promote release of O2 from oxyhemoglobin(oxy binded with hemoglobin in blood).\n\nSo, increased in temperature caused the rate of respiration to increase too.Because O2 tends to be released from the hemoglobin compared to when the weather is cold.This explain why during fever,a person will breath faster than normal person.\nIn contrast,during hypothermia(lowered body temperature) cellular metabolism slows and the need for O2 is reduced,and more O2 remains bound to hemoglobin.\n\nPlease check my grammar too.Im sux with my grammar coz English is my 3rd language.So, please check it.Hope this helps ya!
771897
This is a direct quote (copy and paste):\n"Mean annual temperatures range from 64° F in the extreme southeast to 40° F or lower in high mountains and valleys of the north; elevation is a greater factor in determining the temperature of any specific locality than its latitude.  This is shown by only a 3° F difference in mean temperature between stations at similar elevations, one in the extreme northeast and the other in the extreme southwest; however, at two stations only 15 miles apart, but differing in elevation by 4,700 feet, the mean annual temperature are 61° and 45° F – a difference of 16° F or a little more than 3° decrease in temperature for each 1,000-foot increase in elevation."
706671
At a higher altitude, water boils at a lower temperature, because the boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which the liquid's vapor pressure equals that of the atmosphere.  At high altitudes, the atmospheric pressure is lower than at sea level.\n\nSo it doesn't actually boil "faster", it reaches each temperature at the same rate on a mountain as at the seashore.  It's just that the temperature needed to boil it on the mountain is lower.
404726
First, a high elevation on Earth is not that much closer to the sun than sea level is when you consider the great distance from Earth to the sun.\n\nThe temperature changes have to do with air pressure... there is less of an atmosphere to hold in the heat at a high elevation than there is at sea level.  You might notice that cities at high elevation also have widely varying temperatures between day and night.  Here it will warm up in the day easily without much atmosphere to reflect energy from the sun, but at night it's like just having a sheet over you--the heat escapes easily.  At sea level you will warm up more slowly but hold that heat in much longer because you have a giant blanket of atmosphere over you, and higher air pressure to maintain the heat.  \n\nAlso at sea level, if you are by the sea, you have the added effect of the ocean or sea keeping the air temperate (around the same temperature all the time) since water maintains it temperature better than the air.
1014941
The air gets thinner with altitude and with that so does the temperature. \n\nBesides, to say that you're approaching the sun when you've not even left earth's atmosphere is like saying you're approaching New York when you've only checked in your luggage at Heathrow.
119535
I'm not sure there's a correlation between polar regions an altitude, but there's a strong connection between altitude and climate. In a nutshell, higher altitudes have the affect of moving further north (colder) climate. In the polar region this same effect applies, but is less pronounced since there are fewer climate spans.\n\nAlso, I suspect being near glaciers, water masses, etc. need to be considered for micro-climates.
637462
It's an exponential relationship. The higher the temperature, the more water vapor the air can hold, but this increases exponentially.\nThis is given by the Clausius-Clapeyron equation.\nA useful equation, which is an approximate solution to the C-C equation, is:\nqsat=(0.622*A*exp(-B/T))/p\n\nqsat is the mass of water vapor that a hg of air can hold;\nT is temperature, in K;\np is pressure, in HPa;\nA and B are constants: A=2.53E8; B=5420\nIn case you don't know the exact pressure, use 1000 as an approximation, it won't change much the results.
582102
Air is denser the lower you go on the earth, due to gravity pullin gthe air down. As you move up, there is more "room" for the air to expand. Air temp is just the measure of the net kinetic energy of the molecules of air. The faster and more there are, the hotter it is. therefore, as the air expands as it moves up into the atmosphere, it cools. On top of a mountain, there is less molecules actually hitting your skin, so it feels very cold.
328079
Actually, the oxygen level is the same (about 21%) whether you are at sea level or at the top of Mount Everest.  But the air is thinner at higher elevations.  By thinner, I mean simply that the molecules that make the air are farther apart (less dense) than they are at lower elevations.  Because of this, the air doesn't retain as much heat.  This explains why it is colder.  \n\nAs to why it is more difficult to breath the higher up you go, as I said, the air is less dense, so with each breath you take, you are actually breathing in less air, even though the percentage of oxygen is the same.\n\nOne won't find differing concentrations of oxygen until one gets higher into the atmosphere, into the layer called the stratosphere, which begins at about 14-18 kilometers up.  Mt Everest, which has the highest elevation on earth, is about 8,848 meters high, and grows about 2.5 centimeters each year.
1157491
Temperature is the physical property of a system that underlies the common notions of "hot" and "cold"; something that is hotter has the greater temperature. Temperature arises from the random microscopic motions of the atomic and subatomic constituents of matter. The temperature is related to the average energy of these microscopic motions. It is a fundamental parameter in thermodynamics.\n\nTemperature is measured with thermometers that may be calibrated to a variety of temperature scales. Throughout the world (except for the U.S.), the Celsius scale is universally used for most temperature measuring purposes.