Is the day with the shortest daylight also the coldest day?

Question

I'm working on this homework and I cant seem to figure this out. The shortest day falls jan1st and the coldest day falls on jan 6th. What are some possible reasons for this? In theory, they should fall on the same day.

Answer 1

The shortest day is actually about 21 December.  It is usually not the coldest day because it takes a while for the oceans, water and land to cool of.  The coldest day is probably about the end of January for most places.

Answer 2

Not necessarily, there are many factors such as clouds, fronts, and proximity to water that affect the temperature. The coldest day usually occurs in january or february, but the factors i listed above can make it anytime during the winter.

Answer 3

Not always. It just depends on the angle of the sun.

Answer 4

Then length of days does not DIRECTLY correlate to the day's temperature.  That is to say, the longest day is in June, but the hottest days are in July and August.  Likewise the shortest day is the winter solstice (not sure where the assignment determined 1 Jan as shortest day) but it will not be the coldest day.

The reason is that land and water masses are still heating and cooling and take longer to do so (water masses take much longer than land masses).  So even as the days get longer, the cold gets stronger.

Answer 5

The shortest day is actually December 21 or 22, the first day of winter. Remember that there's a lag effect. The colder weather is due to the Earth losing more heat than it takes in, even though in January, the days get longer, the heat still continues to leave the atmosphere. January 6 is actually a very early "coldest day", perhaps you live in California or anywhere on the west coast. Here, in Pennsylvania, the dead of winter is from mid-January to mid-February. January and February are colder than December for that very reason. In February, the temperatures are just starting to rise again, but it takes a good while, which is why March is winter.