how is latitude related to air temperature?

Answer 1

The reason higher latitudes have lower temperatures is mainly because at higher latitudes the sun rays are less perpendicular to the surface of the earth, thus the Earth receives less heat from the sun.

Imagine you are holding a flashlight above a table. Hold it so the beam goes straight down. You will see a nice circle of light on the table.

Now hold the flashlight at the same height, but at an angle over the table. Notice that now the same amount of light is spread over a larger, oval area.

The same amount of energy has to shine on a larger area, thus you have less energy per unit of area. In the same way, the sun rays are more askew to the Earth's surface near the poles, so the Earth receives less heat, thus you have lower temperatures.

Another component is the angle of inclination of the Earth's axis. In the winter, days are a lot shorter thus the sun shines less over the land. This is why it gets colder in the winter.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Latitude is the distance from the equator. As latitude increases, the air temperature decreases. This is the same thing as saying that the air gets colder as you travel farther away from the equator.

Answer 3

As latitude increases, temperature decreases. This is because you are moving from the equator towards the poles.
However, this is really true during the equinoxes, when the sun is over the equator. During the solstices, the sun is above 23.5 degrees latitude.