It's the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. And it is hot today. But our hottest days are still ahead, even though the days will start getting shorter. This is because of a climate idea called environmental lag.
Earth has seasons because it's tilted 23 and a half degrees on its axis. As it orbits the Sun, the amount of light hitting us here in Colorado Springs changes.
On the summer solstice, our half of the world, the Northern Hemisphere, is tilted directly toward the sun. This gives us our most direct sunlight and longest day of the year.
It's typically hot at this time of the year because the long days with more direct sunshine combine to give us lots of energy, and therefore, heat. But this isn't when our average heat peaks. Here's a look at our average high and low in Colorado Springs from January to December. The average warmest high and low temperatures are from mid-July to early August. This is because of seasonal lag.
Earth is more than 70 percent covered by water, mainly our oceans.
Water acts like a big heat battery. It takes a long time to heat up the water, like charging a battery.
It also takes a long time for water to cool down, like using a battery. So even as the days start to get shorter, the oceans are still heating up.
How hot our air is, is a combination of the energy the sun gives us and the energy radiating out from the land and sea.
So because our planet holds onto heat, our average temperatures keep climbing about a month past when we max out our solar energy. In short, even though our days will start getting shorter this weekend, we'll continue to bake for several months.
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