what factors cause the Earth to heat unevenly?
926966
Main ones are: \nalbedo (reflection lowers heating)\nheat capacity (land heats differently than water)\nand #1: direct sunlight (hot) vs. indirect (not as hot).
918513
Heat transfer in the Earth's atmosphere is dominated by radiation effects, rather than thermal conduction or convection.\n\nIt's complicated, but on average the Earth's surface is a few tens of degrees warmer than the surface of the Moon, which receives the same amount of sunlight, and of course has no atmosphere.
334932
The axis of the earth shifts seasonally.
1179481
The source of the heat is from Hell (so generally hell is hot), so when it rises our earth is of moderate temperature for us living things. The heat continues to rise and when it is high up in the atmosphere, pressure reduced, this result in Cold Heaven as well....:p
24509
Partly.\nThe increasing emission of Green House gases in causing Global warming which is making the world's climate go topsy-turvy\n\nNow you have Summer heat waves in Europe, Snow fall in Dubai, the killer Hurricanes\n\nPerhaps it is time for Mankind to step back and think as to why these are happening\n\nBut I should state that Earth Quakes are not quite related to this effect (but then again, you would never know)
586003
Air Pressure.  The humidity and such in the air is higher and therefore holds more warmth.\n\nAt higher altitudes, where the air is less dense, there is greater distance between particulates and heat is lost faster.
133407
It's because of evaporation.  Whenever something evaporates, it takes energy away from what it's touching, and the temperature goes down.
885539
Temperature increases as pressure increases due to increased molecular collisions.  The Earth generates an incredible amount of gravity, meaning that everything is pulled towards the center of the Earth.  So at the center of the Earth is an incredible amount of pressure due to the incredibly high density of molecules moving around there, and thus the temperature is incredibly high!
799943
because the earth is tilted
403512
Mostly due to the sun heating the Earth and the ocean, causing convection and ocean currents, which effect the atmosphere and cause wind.\n\nThat's the very short answer; read this for the complete one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind
736398
The tilt of the earth on its axis. When it is tiled one way, the sun hits more directly. When it is tilted the other way, it is more spread out.\n\nAgainst what you may think, the earth is actually closer to the sun in the winter than in the summer.
1182317
Air masses are formed by uneven heating and cooling of the Earth by the sun. This causes pressure differences in different areas of the globe. The movement of air masses is just the flow of high pressure air masses to low pressure areas.
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.
260515
Apparently, lesser sunlight will get in. That will cause some imbalance on earth.
304041
Exactly none. There is a finite amount of energy stored on the planet in the form of fossil fuels. Burning it releases this energy. You cannot add more. There has been heat RELEASED by the burning of fossil fuels onthe planet, which many people believe causes global warming. The only heat energy added to the planet is solar energy.
845575
Well, the solar energy received by Earth is considered a constant. The heat from residual internal sources is considered to be minimal compared to the amount received by the Sun. Also the idea of a constant temperature is relative to the scale of time and space you choose. I'm not going into variations possibly due to sunspot occurrence, orbital, precession, axis wobble, volcanic, meteor impacts, nor seasonal changes.\nHere is a general model of energy transfers, heating and temperature.\nThe amount and wavelength of energy absorbed by a substance or blackbody causes it to heat to a particular temperature and radiate at a particular wavelength. Though the atmosphere is of a layered, mostly permanent composition and the Earth surface is not contiguous, this helps understand the effect of radiant energy on Earth. The reactions of the Sun make it so hot the radiant energy is essentially short wave (high frequency). Consider 100 units of solar sw received by the Earth (insolation), the atmosphere absorbs 25 (mostly due to ozone in the stratosphere) and reflects or scatters 25, while the water/terrain at the surface absorbs 45 and reflects 5. As the terrain and atmospheric gases absorb the sw energy they heat, but not too hot, and radiate long wave energy (low frequency).\nThe Earth surface radiates 104 units of lw - 100 to the atm and 4 out to space. The atm radiates 154 units - 88 back to Earth and 66 out to space. How can this happen and where does the additional energy come from?\nThere are several parts of this development.\nPart of the reason is the atm is a layered, mostly gaseous composition that exchanges energy amongst the layers, the Earth surface, and out to space. Another part is the other ways energy is transferred, such as the convection and turbulent flow of gases that transfer latent and sensible heat between the surface and atmosphere. You experience this when water is transported and goes through its various phases to develop the local weather.\nLets give these processes values. Convective processes values account for 22 units of latent heat and 7 of sensible heat.\nNow tally the total energy absorbed by the surface as 45 + 88 = 133 and the atm as 100 + 25 = 125. The convective processes ensure the energy balance by transferring 29 units of energy from the surface to the atm to obtain the 104 units and 154 units mentioned earlier. This leads to development of a mean global temperature as we know it at 15 deg C.\nNotice how much the atm is relied upon to transfer energy out to space? Changing the atm composition with additional variable/ long term gases, particulates, and aerosols can alter the events.\nParticulates and some gases can cause more reflection at the top of the atm resulting in less insolation, less heating, and lower temperature. Addition of some gases into the atm can increase the absorbtion of lw radiation or prevent it from being transferred to space. When it comes back to the surface, additional heating and a temperature increase will result if the convective processes cannot adjust for the increased energy.
1102975
Because gravity pulls equally in all directions.\nAs soon as the materials that the earth is made of began to gather together under self-gravity, the center pulled equally in all directions.  As heat from friction and radioactivity made much of the early earth molten, gravity pulled it into the most efficient shape -- a sphere.  Because of the earth's rotation and centrifugal force, it's not quite a perfect sphere -- it bulges a bit at the equator and is slightly flattened at the poles -- but it's simply gravity doing what it does naturally.  It's why all large bodies are in the shape of a sphere.