I f hot air rises, then why is it colder up in de mountains?
830106
Because most politicians aren't found on mountaintops, and it takes some time for the hot air to rise, so there's a higher concentration of hot air at lower elevations.
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.
61711
Hot air is less dense than cold air so it rises 9that's why upstairs in a house is usually warmer than downstairs).  By filling a bag with hot air you can make the bag (balloon) rise up.
587432
Colder air is "thicker," moves much more slowly than does hot air, and is heavier than warmer air...Air will set up a gradient from the coldest at the bottom to the hottest at the top in a container...
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.
654750
No its not necessarily closer to the sun(visit usgs.org) and even if its closer, it may be closer by 0.000001%.What big difference does that make.Its the difference in air pressure that makes the peaks colder.The higher you go up in the earth's atmosphere,the pressure decreases.And even an object 90% closer to the sun may not be that hot.
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.
155061
The temperature must drop below freezing up in the atmosphere,  where there is a concentration of water vapor. Typically this is caused when a warm front (full of water) rolls over a cold front -- the drop in temperature condenses the water high up and it drops to the ground as snow. But it can also happen when a cold front moves over a lake (ie. lake-effect snow). This is seen in a place like Buffalo.
387707
Temperature decreases w/ height as you move up through the troposphere b/c of a decrease in air pressure.\n\nAir pressure steadily declines as you move up b/c there is less gravity. Since gravity acts on everything that has mass, including air, it holds most of the earth's air close to the ground. Air acts as an insulator or blanket, absorbing long wave radiation reradiated from the earth. When you move upward away from the surface, the air thins out. There is less air to hold heat.\n\nHowever, once you leave the troposphere, you enter the stratosphere. Here the temps steadily increase due to the presence of the ozone layer. The ozone traps heat.\n\nAs you move away from the stratosphere you will enter the mesosphere where temps decrease again due to less air & movement away from the ozone layer.\n\nAs you go even higher & enter the Thermosphere, the temps increase again b/c solar radiation is so intense that the few air particles that are present are super heated. The chances of being burned are slight to none b/c the air particles are few & far between. After all that is what is holding the actual heat.
137459
Differential heating causes hot air to rise and other air has to take its place so that in turn causes wind.  Weather is very complicated and is affected by many variables.
339878
Heat likes to rise. If there are clounds, they keep the heat in. On clear nights, the heat can rise up and away and it gets colder.
523421
The simplest answer I can give you is that the air doesn't absorb much heat from the sun (sunlight passes through it), while the ground does (the exception is ozone, which does absorb more radiation, and thus higher up in the atmosphere, there is actually a warm layer).  So the ground is actually what is doing the heating, and the higher you go in the atmosphere, the further you are from the ground, the cooler the temperatures.\nOf course mountains are ground... but air at the same height mixes about quite a lot, so while air near a mountain might be a bit warmer... the air in other places at the same height is well above the ground, so it's cooler overall.\n\nIn addition, air cools as rises, a second reason why its cooler higher up in the troposphere.\n\n\nSpace is really really really cold!  It's for the same reason.  The light from the sun itself isn't hot... it's when its absorbed by something, which heats it up.\n\nHope this makes sense, let me know if there is anymore I can help with here,\nGod bless,\nShane
601199
actually the hot air because of its lighter weight than cold air tends to go up and so cold air because of its more weight than hot air tends to come down and replace the hot air.
868843
It's harder for your body to cool off when it's hot because the difference in temperature is not as large as when it is cool.  Put another way, the cool air on a cool day, regardless of the relative humidity, helps to cool you off.
804973
A fundamental axiom: cold air is heavier than warm air.\n\nThus, cold air sinks (like into a valley) and hot air rises.\n\nHowever, the temperature gradient (how temperature changes with increasing altitude) is negative.  This means air gets colder as altitude increases.  So what we have is cold air at altitude pushing down on warm air near ground level.\n\nThe warm air heat comes from the ground, which is heated by our Sun.  In summer, there is a lot more of that solar energy to heat the ground and lower air in the valley than in winter.  Thus, the valley air is warm.  In fact, the weight of the colder upper air contributes a little bit to the heat below because a gas under pressure does heat up.  But in winter, when there is far less solar energy and resulting heat, the naturally colder air above settles into the valley.  \n\nBoth the cold and warm air are more or less trapped in the valley because of the hills or mountains surrounding it.  Thus, the cold air stays colder because no warm air is blown from the surroundings into the valley.  And the warm air stays warmer because no cold air is blown into it.
1029587
Previous answers are crap. Air pressure is less up in the mountains, so the air there is less dense. When you are at the beach, you have all of the air from the beach to the top of the atmposphere above you. This air has weight, and pushes down on you. This is the same idea as the pressure at deep parts of the ocean being very high. Because air is compressable, the air at the beach is made more dense because of the weight of the air above it. In the mountains, you have less air above you (most of the air is below you), and so the air pressure is less. This means the air is less dense, and so it is "thin".
1115854
The weight of the air pressing down on the Earth, the ocean and on the air below causes air pressure. Earth's gravity, of course, causes the downward force that we know as "weight." Since the pressure depends upon the amount of air above the point where you're measuring the pressure, the pressure decreases as you go higher.\n\nso im guessing he talked about how in mountains, atmospheric pressure is low and high in deserts with regards to elevation. as air goes down/descends, it warms and cools as it goes up. \n\nhttp://www.usatoday.com/weather/tg/whighlow/whighlow.htm\n\nyes. froggie is right. the phenomenon is called rainshadow effect. \n\nnow i dont really know what your question is, but just a trivia. notice that on one side of tall mountain, it is high in plant life while the other is mainly desert? this is because the mountain blocks the moving air and forces it to precipitate thus causing rain which in turn supports lots of plants which support the animals.  now since the water molecules in the air was already precipitated/ let go on the one side, there is nothing left for the other side of the mountain thus the formation of deserts. so instead of formation of rain, the air starts to gather water molecules from its surroundings, depriving the plants of necessary moisture thus no plant life can be observed in most deserts. \n\nhope that helps.