YANCEY COUNTY, North Carolina — Have you ever wondered why there's a temperature difference between Charlotte and the mountains? Many people ask our team why, in theory, it's not warmer on the top of a mountain, because it's closer to the sun.

First things first, let’s take the proximity to the sun out of the equation. The sun is approximately 93 million miles away from Earth. The highest point in North Carolina is Mt. Mitchell at a 6,684 feet above sea level. For comparison, Charlotte is approximately 751 feet above sea level.

Even though we see the mountains as high in the sky, the scale of distance closer to the sun is extremely small.

Second, the sun doesn’t really heat up the air, it heats up the Earth’s surface.

Incoming solar radiation from the sun is attracted to things like th

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