Why is the shortest day not the coldest?

Question

In NZ we're just coming up to the shortest day, but winter has only just begun. Generally speaking, July is a lot colder than June. Why is it not the coldest time of year now, when the days ar the shortest? Has it got something to do with heat stored by the earth?

Answer 1

You said it! Stored heat or stored cold (lack of heat) affects temperature changes. There is a kind of momentum to the weather. For example on the first day of summer, the day is much longer than on the first day of winter. But on the second day of summer (a shorter day) more heat is received by the earth than is lost to outer space and the temperature continues to climb (almost till autumn when the temperature and leaves begin to fall). Following the shortest day of winter more heat is still lost to outer space than is gained by the earth for months on end. Large temperature swings still occur, especially when huge air masses arrive from hotter (or colder) regions and it takes time for the mass of the earth (including bodies of water) to change temperature. For a lake to freeze (on top) all the water top-to-bottom must cool to 32F otherwise warm water would rise and melt the ice. This is known as lake turnover.

Answer 2

When the day is shorter then the night, this means that the part of the country you are in for example, the north pole, at one end of the Earth, hence less light reaches to it and therefore the days are shorter. The shortest day might not be the coldest due to global warming and stuff like that. Hope this helps in some way.

Answer 3

The Winter Solstice, in the USA it falls on December 22. That is the day with the least amount of daylight. It has to do with the Earth's axis and rotation.

Answer 4

It has to do with three things.
Snow cover -- as snow and ice build up the ground retains cold easier.
Colder water -- once lakes and ponds freeze a warmup takes longer.
Frozen ground -- depending upon terrain the ground becomes an ice box.

Answer 5

you kind of answered your own question, its stored heat plus the tilt of the earths axis and at what point the earth is in its orbit around the sun. our orbit is elliptical (but starting lately to become more rounded) so when we are closest to the sun youl'd think it be the warmest but it takes a while to heat the earth so when it travels away again and gets almost to its farthest point from the sun and thats when its fully heated but starts cooling again because its far away in its orbit.

Answer 6

Heat stored by the Ocean.

Answer 7

When its the shortest day its gonna be cold because it will be mostly nighttime. but it might be humid i guess

Answer 8

coz it dont last long enough to make up its mind

Answer 9

all days are 24hrs long