if warm air rises why are the tops of mountains always frozen?

Answer 1

I think the warm air can't reach the top of the mountains because the air up there is thinner and it's hard for hot air to reach there.

Answer 2

Tops of mountains are always frozen because it is always cold there.

The surface of the earth absorbs energy from the sun and converts it into heat, which goes to heat the air. The warm air rises because it is rarer (less density). But as it rises, it loses heat to the surrounding colder air, until it is at the same temperature as the surroundings.

The reason the warm air rising from the surface of the earth does not melt the mountain tops is because there is not enough of it!

Answer 3

when you move away from the earth's surface, the air column above you becomes thinner and thinner. as a result you will experience low atmospheric pressure. low atmospheric pressure is associated with cold or chill type of weather. mountain tops being several meters away from the earth's surface are subjected to such weather hence the freezing. warm air will rise because of it being less dense compared to cold air; this sets up the Patten we call convection currents where cold air from above sinks down replacing warm air near the surface of the earth. this will take place in the region of the atmosphere where weather pattens are formed.

Answer 4

Probably a combination of thin air and wind. The thin air doesn't hold heat as well and when the wind blows it cools it even more.

Then again I'm not a climatologist or a meteorologist.

Answer 5

I agree with Digital.

Also, heat dissipates quicker as it radiates from the earth into the atmosphere. Consider that space has no atmosphere and that it doesn't get much colder than space. Naturally speaking of course.

S