keithatcpt t1_j2cdfjr wrote
With anything that’s warmed by a heat source, there is a “thermal lag time” where the temperature of what’s being warmed doesn’t start increasing right away. The bigger the system, the longer the lag time, and the earth is a pretty big system. Also, the energy provided by the sun generally is the same a week after the winter solstice as it is a week before, when the northern hemisphere is still cooling off on average. That’s why the coldest month tends to be January. When things start warming up in late February into March, the weather patterns tend to be windy and stormy as more energy is heating the northern hemisphere, causing evaporation from the oceans which runs into the cold air over the continents.
jrob323 t1_j2d2yst wrote
Yeah there's a 90 degree phase shift as things continue to cool off, like the ocean. But that's also why id didn't start getting immediately cooler after June 21. If you remember, it actually keeps getting hotter and hotter for awhile. The ocean stores it up and starts dumping the heat back into the system in the fall.
WayneHudsonIII OP t1_j2dfrf1 wrote
Interesting. Thanks for your response!
So is the thermal lag time just the amount of time it takes to heat things up? So after the solstice, the energy from the sun is increasing but the temperature trails behind? Then at the Summer Solstice even though the energy from the sun starts to decrease, things still get hotter because that lag is catching up?
keithatcpt t1_j2diuh9 wrote
Exactly. The summer solstice is in June, but typically July into August is the hottest part of the year.
darrellbear t1_j2e9nij wrote
We have it easy in the northern hemisphere--Earth is closest to the Sun on January 3, farthest from the Sun in July. The southern hemisphere gets the worst of it in both months (hotter summers and colder winters), though it's mediated somewhat by more ocean in the southern part of the planet.
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