Why - the higher you fly in a plane, the colder the outside temp gets - even though you are closer to the sun?
475577
You would surmise, that since the sun is the source of the heat for the\nearth and atmosphere, that the atmosphere should be warmer at points closer\nto the sun, like at the TOP of the atmosphere, instead of the reverse.\n\n   But the atmosphere is not warmed directly by the sun...it is warmed by the\nEARTH...!  Most of the energy from the sun arrives at the earth in the form\nof light energy, or short-wave energy. The atmosphere is transparent to\nshort-wave energy, and most of the solar energy reaches the surface of the\nearth, where it is absorbed. This energy warms the surface of the earth,\nwhich, in turn, warms the atmosphere with long-wave energy. The type of\nenergy radiated by a star primarily depends on the temperature. So the\nenergy from the sun arrives at the earth as short-wave (in the visible part\nof the spectrum) energy, and leaves the earth as long-wave (in the infra-red\npart of the spectrum) energy.\n\n   The atmosphere is not transparent to long-wave radiation, and absorbs the\nheat energy from the earth. That part of the atmosphere closest to the earth\ngets the most energy and is the warmest.\n\n   Because the sun is nearly overhead in the latitudes nearest the equator,\nthose locations receive more solar energy per unit area, and become warmer\nthan those locations near the poles. This difference in the amount of energy\nreceived and subsequent heating of the atmosphere and evaporation of water\nfrom the lakes and oceans, is what drives the "weather machine" on the\nearth.
215716
Concrete, glass, steel etc all absorb heat from the sun, when the temperature drops they act like radiators giving off heat.  The bigger the city the more heat it retains and so large cities such as Tokyo, London, New York can be several degrees warmer than the surrounding rural areas.\n\nIf you're ever out in a rural area on a cool night at the end of a hot day try walking on the road then walking on the grass - there's a marked difference in temperature - that's why cattle, sheep etc often congregate on roads in the evenings.\n\nCities also generate much more heat from motor vehicles, industry, heat escaping from buildings and even (to a small extent) the people in them.\n\nAdditionally, cities create pollution and this acts as a barrier which traps heat in and locks colder air out.\n\nThere's also the fact that cities tend to be at lower altitudes and for each 150m gained the temp drops by 1 degree C, and they're less windy than more exposed rural areas so it's harder for cold air to penetrate into a city.
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.
47165
The closer a country is to the equator, the more direct sunlight it receives year round. Adding about 20 degrees to the average high temperature compared to countries like the USA.
566076
The sun rays expand when it goes further and further, so more area to cover from the sun on the land, thats the part that is hot. go further up and the rays are thinner hence cooler.
441428
In modern jets the air is taken from after several stages of compression at this point the air is relatively hot and can be allowed to cool through a small radiator before being depressurized.  The resulting depressurized air will be significantly cooler because it had lost energy when there was a heat differential between atmosphere and its pressurized state. This is why the air conditioning in an airplane needs assistance from a ground until the engines are operating.
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.
988748
heat technically speaking, does not rise. heat energy travels from area of high energy to an area of low energy (think about how heatsinks work). it's just convient to say it rises.\n\nThe reason why it's colder the higher you go is beacuse the pressure is less and the heat energy is more spread out. therefore the tempreture goes down.\n\nboth are covered by two of the three law of thermodynamics, not sure which ones exactly. it's been a while.
703084
Ice crystals form at high altitude.  Temperature drops approximately 5 degrees for every thousand feet.  If a plane is flying at 35 thousand feet, 35 X 5 = a temperature well below zero even on the warmest day at sea level...\n\nExhaust has water vapor in it that freezes and that is what we see.
49934
It depends.  Usually you will have the cooling effect as mentioned by the previous answer to to rarifaction of the air, but there's also the fact that the air being thinner leads to the top being more sensitive to changes, and the sunlight is less filtered.  The sun will feel hotter at high altitudes, and the last time I drove over Tejon Pass (which connects LA to the San Joaquin Valley), I noticed that the temperature rose as I ascended.  That same weekend, I check the weather report on the Kirkwood (ski resort) website, and they referred to an inversion, where the temperature gets higher as you go up.  I also know that at time camping in the mountains in the height of summer, it can be much hotter in the mountains than at sea level.\n\nDeserts are likewise often miisunderstood.  Generally we think of them as hot, but they can also get extremely cold because there's no moisture in the air to hold heat.  Some of the biggest deserts are in Antarctica.
973898
That is a fantastic question.\nIt is a matter of humidity. The cold weather\nthat allows snow means the air is not humid\nenough to allow an electric current to travel\n(along the water vapor in the air) over the differently\ncharged clouds and sky. People who say temp are\nsort of right, but it is the low temp that leads to the low\nhumidity that causes the "problem".\n\nThanks for asking such a good question.
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.
959944
It's because the thinner atmosphere at the higher altitude holds less heat.  The atmosphere and its greenhouse effect is the reason why the night side of the Earth is not frozen, because the atmosphere holds infrared radiation given off by the Earth after it is irradiated by the sun.  But at altitudes where the atmosphere is thinner, it is able to hold less of that warmth.
128708
The temp on an planet is inversly proportional to the distance from the sun. i.e., nearer the planet to sun, hotter it becomes and vice-versa.\n\nThe reason for the behaviour is that with increase in distance, the sun light/heat becomes weak hence giving less heat to the planet which is far from it.\nThis is the reason why Mercury is the hottest and Pluto is the Coldest of the Nine planets of our solar system.
194124
Because the air spreads out, and as it spreads out it retains less heat.\n\nAnd while cold air does sink and hot air rises, as cold air does get lower in altitude it warms up, and hot air cools as it rises. \n\nI live in the foothills west of Denver so I see the rising/falling air thing firsthand. In the winter we get this air that 50 miles to the west was part of a blizzard. As it descends the mountains, it dries out and heats up sometimes bringing temperatures in the middle of the winter into the 60's or 70's.
527660
our bodies constantly generate a lot of heat because of our metabolism. So we have to constantly lose heat to maintain our normal temperature. \n\nIf you put a bucket of warm water outside, and that warm water just happened to be 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but the outdoor temperature was 85 degrees Fahrenheit, the water would cool down. That's because the outdoor temperature, while still warm, is cooler than the temperature of the water. Heat naturally flows from warmer places to cooler places. The heat's "goal" is to reach equilibrium–a state where everything is the same temperature as everything that surrounds it. That's why a hot bowl of soup or a cold glass of soda will eventually reach room temperature if you leave them out long enough.\n\nThe difference between you and a bucket of water (well, one of many differences) is that your body is constantly generating more heat. All that heat has to go somewhere, so it tries to escape through your skin. The greater the difference between the outside temperature and the temperature of your body, the faster that heat will escape. That's why you'll feel much cooler on a 60-degree day than on a 90-degree day.
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:)