How come you are more likely to see a mirage in a hot day rather than a cold one?

Question

How come you are more likely to see a mirage in a hot day rather than a cold one?
Can anyone explain?

Answer 1

I think it's because the ground gets hot faster than the air. Then the ground heats up the air next to it, and you get a layer of hot air right below a layer of cold air, with a fairly sharp division. Light will actually reflect off this division just as it reflects off the division between air and water. Our brains are programmed to think that if we see a reflection on the ground, it must be caused by a puddle of water, hence the mirage.

Answer 2

Mirage, realistic image of an object that is either totally imaginary or that appears to be in a location other than the true one. The imaginary vision is a psychological aberration sometimes experienced by persons suffering from such conditions as extreme thirst, or mental or physical strain. The phenomenon that causes objects to appear out of place, usually in desert or at sea, is the result of atmospheric conditions. When heat radiates from a hot earth surface, as in a desert, it causes a diminution of the density of the air just above the surface and forces a denser layer of air to remain above the hot, rarefied air instead of, as is usually the case, below it. The boundary between the two layers produces a lenslike effect and refracts or bends rays of light from a distant object; it also gives the appearance of a layer of water (see Optics). The image produced by the rays bent by abnormal vertical distribution of air density appears inverted and below the real object, just as an image reflected in water appears when observed from a distance. A common experience of this phenomenon is the mirrored reflection of objects on a paved road in hot weather.

In the case of a mirage at sea, the denser layers of air are next to the cool surface of the water, and the reflection takes place from the rarer atmosphere above. Thus the object appears distorted, elongated, inverted, and suspended in the air, producing a so-called looming effect.

Answer 3

The ground gets VERY hot and it heats the layers of air close to it. The hotter the ground gets, the greater the temperature difference over the lower layers of air.

The greater the temperature difference, also the greater the density difference between the layers of air.

It is the difference in density of the air that causes the difference in refraction - this causes the mirage.

Answer 4

A mirage is an optical illusion caused by air movement. It happens more on a hot day, over a radiating surface.

Answer 5

Freezing chilly......... as i'm getting too warm besides, additionally I even have had no heating or warm water for a week boiler broke returned. I had 2 weeks of no heating or hotwater 3 weeks in the past, so i'm getting used to the chilly, and that is windy and wet all this week.

Answer 6

Because on a hot day without water our mind do not work straight and start imagining thigs we need or want such as water other illiusions are caused by chemical disbalences in ones mind hope I helped! :-)