If heat rises, why is it cold on top of higher elevations... such as Mount Everest for instance?

Question

If heat rises, why is it cold on top of higher elevations... such as Mount Everest for instance?

Answer 1

Heat rises because hot air is less dense than cold air.  This kind of phenomenon matters little in such a huge environment, as the hot air rises, it spreads and cools because there is less air to trap radiation at high elevations and you're further away from the core of the Earth.

Answer 2

as the air gets thinner it gets colder...can not hold the suns heat

Answer 3

The upper atmosphere is usually always colder.  Just like when it rains at ground level, 90 % of the time, even in the summer, the rain begins as snow in the upper atmosphere and turns to rain as it nears the surface.  Warm air does rise but it cools once it gets to a certain altitude.

Answer 4

much like ice crystals on airplanes. the earth has less ozone layering at those altitudes to trap heat in thus making it cold.

Answer 5

because there is snow there

Answer 6

The sunlight heats the atmosphere, not from the top,but from the bottom.The reflected sun's radiation from the surface only heats the atmosphere mostly by conduction from the bottom.So the temperature always decreases with height.Hence the temperature is already less over Mount Everest.So a heated air rises and it also gets cooled at a particular height and stops rising once its temeprature becomes equal to the surroundings.