Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A Weather thing I've always wondered about?

How come when the sun comes up in the morning, the temperature will go down instead of up. I've known that this happens for years, but I've never known why.

I've been sitting around since before six waiting for the frost to burn off. It was 27 degrees when I first started watching this morning, the sun is out and it is beautiful outside, the high is supposed to be in the upper 50s today, but the temp is still going down -- it's 20 out now.

Why? It seems to me that the sunshine would be warming things up not cooling them down, there is no wind so the air isn't moving much, I don't get it.

Sun's warmth takes about ten minutes to arrive after the orb itself is visible.. Actual warming takes around 30 minutes longer..

I didn't check the link and maybe I'm all wet, but that's from my meager memory resources..

Good question.

I have actually gotten colder after the sun has risen while hunting.

I always thought it put more water vapor in the air, which made it more chilly for a little while or I had been sitting inactive for 30 minutes after my walk in, my body had cooled down and that made it seem colder.

I have no evidence to back up either theory, but I know I get colder when it first pops up.

In my experience, the coldest dawns are the one's when you get home and your wife is waiting for you in the driveway. Thank goodness I haven't experienced one of those in a long time.

I remember those.

Funny how stupid we can be sometimes.

I just thought I was nuts and never brought it up to anyone. I always felt warmer sitting on stand before the sun rose and then later started to cool down. It couldn't be blamed on the walk to the stand to warm me because they were always short, and I was on stand 30 minutes before the 30 minutes you were allowed before sunrise to harvest.

yep. makes sense. i've always thought the wind picked up about 45 minutes after sunup. even on still, cold days, the wind would increse a little while after sunrise. i suppose it's warm and cooler "pockets" of air beginning to mix. this creates air flows.

That was my thought also. I never thought it actually got colder, just felt colder.

It's just thermal lag. Have you noticed that when you take a roast out of the oven, the interior of it will continue to get hotter? It's the same thing with air.

You'd think noon would be the warmest part of the day, but that usually happens two to four hours later. Lag again. It's even worse on the larger scale. The hottest month isn't June, when the sun is highest and days longest, but two months later. Ditto winter, when the coldest temps come in February, not December.

All of this is balanced, of course, by magazine publishing dates, in which I am now reading the December/January issue of a gun magazine. (If they keep coming sooner and sooner, I'll eventually be able to read the June issue in June of the year before.)

There's a distinct difference between a "cold dawn" in the woods hunting, and a "chilly reception" at home.

In this case, "chilly" is certainly the more painful of the two.

Good link, ya learn something new everyday

I think it has to do with the amount of advertising sold.

yep, the winter solstice is set as Dec 21. after that, we're moving closer and closer to the Sun. but, the coldest weather might come a bit later??

We're actually closer to the sun in January and farthest in July - it's an elliptical orbit.

The earth's angle of the dangle is the reason for the season.

NOT distance.

Itppowell:

The temperature lag mentioned above is the primary cause, but a secondary reason for colder temperatures after sunrise is that the very cold air that has settled down into the valleys at night is drawn upward with the upslope morning breeze. So if you're on a hillside or even near a depression where cold air has settled overnight, you could feel colder air moving uphill across your position soon after sunrise.

I teach weather courses to firefighters, and the daily upslope/downslope wind change is a major influence on fire movement.

Gus:

Yes, the coldest time of the year is usually January rather than December, for the same reason as discussed above. Same reason in reverse makes it hotter in July than June, even though June 22 is the longest day of the year. The earth can only radiate a certain amount of heat off into space each night, and as long as more heat is coming in during the long daylight hours than is going out during the much shorter nighttime hours, temperatures will continue to rise each day.

Tilt is why the southern hemisphere has winter when we have summer. If it was distance, it'd be the same down under as up top.

I knew it!

We're melting!

There is the psyche part too. When you've been freezing yer butt off during the night, the sun is a welcome sight and you expext it to warm up. And it takes awhile.
Knowing this helps little.

I remember laying in my sleeping bag in the tent around dawn, Fall fishing on Lake Sakakawea, trying hard to hold my water ... but NOT wanting to go outside 'cause it was too DAMN COLD.

When I couldn't hold it any longer any finally went out, I was greeted by a rising sun and a much welcome feel of real "warmth". Must'a been the dank humidity in the tent or something ... don't know?

I knew my buddy was awake so I yelled at him, "Hey Bill, better C'mon out here, this is a great morning."

He answered, "NO, TOO DAMN COLD!"

He never believes me anyway, so I just made myself some coffee.