Nancy Rae Beernink, age , of Spokane, Wash. or her question:

Why are mountain tops always cold?

Spokane may be basking in a hot spring day. But not far away, there are mountain tops draped in icy snow,  Since summers heat comes from the energy of the sun, this does not make sense. For the sun is up in the sky, And the tops of the mountains are closer to the sun than is the city.

The suns energy streams forth and passes through the air on its way to the earth. But the filmy air cannot grab onto it and hold it. It lets through most of the sunshine to fall on the land and the seas. They are able to absorb the suns energy and become warm with it. It is this warmth from the land and seas which warms the air above them.

Naturally, the air nearest the ground gets most of this heat. The lowest layer of air heats up the most. The higher we go, the cooler. the air becomes. Tall mountain tops are high in the air above the ground. Even in warmest weather, enough heat cannot rise to melt their snows.