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For the same reason that it's not hottest at noon: temperature lags heat input. The earth doesn't come to equilibrium on the day with the highest heat input; the next day the sun is still putting enough heat into the system to make it a little warmer. And the next day and so on until the heat input drops enough that it's not quite enough to make things continue to get hotter, then the temperature starts to drop. The higher the heat capacity, the greater the lag. Oceans can store a lot more heat than land. Places that are dominated by oceans (like the west coast of North America) are not only more moderate, the annual high comes later than in places that are far from oceans. The the highest average daily high Omaha is in mid-July, three weeks after the solstice. In Seattle it's the first week of August, three weeks later.

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18y ago

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