What is the difference of temperature of an object in shade and out of shade on a hot day?

Question

I read that building a snow house (an igloo) sometimes saves the lives of Arctic researchesrs and trevelers because inside the igloo the temperature is 50 degrees higher than outside. I was wondering whether a similar temperature difference exists in hot climates when something is in shade and out of shade.

Answer 1

This is much more complex than you may think. There is also a problem with this question when you used an igloo as a comparing example in this case. To better understand the problem, let us take a look at this question closely.

Reasons why the interior of an igloo can be so much warmer than the outside temperature is because of the following reasons:

1. Snow is an excellent example of good insolator: Any heat energy inside an igloo, even though the walls are built with compacted snow and ice, will likely remain trapped inside the igloo for a while.

2. If nobody is inside the igloo, then with time...heat will slowly build inside from longwave radiation from the earth below. If we add some sunlight outside of the igloo, the wall and the ceiling will absorbed some of this solar shortwave radiation and then reradiated part of it in the form of longwave radiation into the interior of the igloo.

3. You add animals and/or people inside, then they will now become the primary source of warmth with not only their body heat, but any activities like cooking can quickly produce a large difference in temperature in the interior and exterior of the igloo.

4. Finally, if the igloo is complete enclosed, then their will be little if any mixing of the outside colder air and inside warmer. This will also play a large factor in this temperature difference.

Now for your question, all it is asking is whether the temperature of the air in the shade in the hot climate will be different than the air temperature that is not in the shade. The answer is most likely yes. However, whar I can not tell you is which one would be warmer or colder. Because that will depend mainly on whether that shade is inside an enclosure where air is not allow to mix or whether is outside but under the shade of a tree where the air can mix. If it is allow to mix, then the shaded area will likely be cooler. But if it is in an enclosed structure, it will can be warmer and sometimes much warmer. Example of this is why we do not leave a baby inside a car during the summer parked under the blazing summer heat. And if there is good mixing with windy conditions and the location is humid, there will likely be little difference in temperature between the shaded area and the sunny area. And if you add an igloo into this heated enviroment, then things really get complicated as the melting igloo would add a cooling factor into this equation.

:-)

Answer 2

Well, temperatures of 50 degrees generally don't occur between shady and sunny locations near each other as far as air temperature goes. The air temperature would be approximately 10-20 F degrees different but because you are directly under a radiating heat source, a thermometer in the sun would not read air temperature but hot hot the sun's rays are which in some cased can be above150 degrees F. Your original question, are OBJECTS in the sun hotter than the same objects in the shade, the same rule applies, except that metals tend to hold in a lot of heat so there can be even more than a 50 degree difference between metals in the shade rather than metals in the sun. The reason that object in the shade are so much cooler is because objects in the shade are heated by infrared radiation radiating from the ground, while objects in the sun are heated directly from the suns hot rays.

Virtually all objects in the sun will be hotter than in the shade, but depending on the object, the temperature difference may be less extreme. Take the metal example I talked about earlier, There was a huge difference in temperatures, but if you took paper for example, the difference in temperature would be less extreme than metal due to the fact that metal retains heat much better than paper.

That is a good question you asked, I am happy to answer it!

sincerely

Answer 3

On a hot day,an object in the shade is heated only by the reflected solar radiation from the earth's surface,that too by conduction only.But an object exposed to sun's radiation will be heated directly by sun's rays by radiation as well as by the reflected sun's rays from the earth by conduction also .So, definitely there will be a temperature difference.

Answer 4

It sure does. I live in Arizona which has a great amount of sunshine. If u r working outdoors and leave tools in the sun, especially all metal ones, you cannot handle them because they are too hot. I really think they could burn your skin.

Answer 5

probally between 10 to 20 degrees depending on location and wind.

Answer 6

it depends upon the composition and color of the object.

unpainted steel = very hot-- probably 50 degrees +/-
white painted wood = not very hot- probably 5 degrees +/-

Answer 7

I asked the same question two times, and did not get a proper answer

Answer 8

it can be as much as 80 degrees depending on the color.

Answer 9

APROX.........10 DEGREES