Dear Tom,
Why is the official temperature taken in the shade? When you are in the sun, that is the temperature you feel and not the official temperature.
Phil Haglund, Plainfield
Dear Phil,
Temperatures are always taken in the shade in order to obtain a true air temperature. Clear, clean air is transparent to sunlight, letting sunshine pass through it without capturing the sun’s heat energy and being warmed by it.
When sunlight strikes an object that is not transparent, like your body or a thermometer, the energy of sunlight is converted to heat and the temperature of the object rises. However, that is not the air temperature.
But you do make a valid point. It would surely be interesting (and perhaps useful) to measure and report the temperature to which the energy of sunlight could heat some “standard” object.
———-
Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
