Why is it warmer in northern Scotland during summer than in southern England during winter when southern England is closer to the tropics?

Answer 1

The "tropics" are an area that experiences fairly minor changes in temperature between winter and summer. As latitude increases, the difference between winter and summer becomes more extreme.

So Southern England (at latitude around 48 degrees) experiences some pretty substantial differences in temperature, while northern Scotland has even greater differences between winter and summer. The high latitude summer days are quite long; up to 18-20 hours of daylight during the summer, which allows the Sun to heat them up.

Answer 2

Why are seasonal temperature differences greater in the high latitudes than in the tropics?

First, around the equator, sunlight hits the earth at a 90-degree angle, so more energy lands on the surface per unit area, resulting in warmer temperatures around the equator.However, near the pole, the sun strikes the earth at a lower angle, and the rays are refracted and scattered, resulting in less solar energy per unit area, so the poles become colder.Second, due to the Earth's axial slope, sunlight does not reach the pole during many months of the year, so the air gets colder and colder.

Third, because of the shape of the earth, sunlight travels farther away from the equator to reach the poles, so it has to deal with more atmospheric particles, which leads to more absorption and scattering of sunlight, and ultimately solar energy. Less reaches the pole.

The last factor is the reflection of sunlight by snow. Snow at the poles reflects about 75 to 95% of sunlight, which is much more than the reflection of sunlight at the equator.