Why is Earths surface heated unevenly?

Answer 1

The size of the earth, its distance from the sun, the revolution of the earth, the amount of energy emitted by the sun, cloud cover, the amount of water on the planet, the position of the moon, the axis of the earth, the materials the planet is made of and the core temperature of the earth.

Answer 2

There are several reasons.

The first is the angle of sunlight. Tropical latitudes recieve sunlight at a high angle, and so the energy does per square meter is high. Higher latitudes recieve oblique sunlight due to the curve of the earth, and so recieve less energy per square meter.

Next is albedo. Albedo is the percentage of light that a surface absorbs out of how much hits it. So a high albedo means a lot of energy is reflected while not much is absorbed. The opposite is true for low albedo. Surfaces with high albedo (such as snow) heat up less than low albedo surfaces (such as dark rock) because they absorb less energy.

Then there is specific heat. Specific heat is how much a substance heats up for a given amount of energy it receives. Water has a very high specific heat and so heats up an cools down more slowly than land. Since vegetation is rich in water, vegetated areas tend to see fewer temperature extremes than barren landscapes.

Cloud cover also affects temperature. During the day, clouds can relfect heat into space, lowering temperatures. At night, clouds can radiate heat back to the surface, raising temperatures.

Weather patterns also affect temperature. For example, rain tends to cool the air.