question: if heat rises and mountains are the highest point in a given area, why do they tend to be colder?
comment: The higher up you go, the less air there is. Pressure for gasses is proportional to temperature. So as there is less air, the pressure goes down, which also causes the temperature to go down.
passages: Section::::Climate.
  
  Climate in the mountains becomes colder at high elevations, due to an interaction between radiation and convection. Sunlight in the visible spectrum hits the ground and heats it. The ground then heats the air at the surface. If radiation were the only way to transfer heat from the ground to space, the greenhouse effect of gases in the atmosphere would keep the ground at roughly , and the temperature would decay exponentially with height.
   The effect of the climate on the ecology at an elevation can be largely captured through a combination of amount of precipitation, and the biotemperature, as described by Leslie Holdridge in 1947. Biotemperature is the mean temperature; all temperatures below are considered to be 0 °C. When the temperature is below 0 °C, plants are dormant, so the exact temperature is unimportant. The peaks of mountains with permanent snow can have a biotemperature below .
  
  Section::::Ecology.
   The exact altitude varies by the energy inputs of location, time of day, solar flux, season, etc. and can be between high at a given place and time because of these. A portion of the magnetosphere dips below this layer as well.
   The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow. When air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation (rain or snow). As the air descends on the leeward side, it warms again (in accordance with the adiabatic lapse rate) and is drier, having been stripped of much of its moisture. Often, a rain shadow will affect the leeward side of a range.
  
  Section::::Erosion.
   Temperatures drop with increasing altitude to the mesopause that marks the top of this middle layer of the atmosphere. It is the coldest place on Earth and has an average temperature around .
   High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level. These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains: different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction and recreation, such as mountain climbing.
  
  The highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at .
  
  Section::::Definition.
   Some more localized phenomena than global atmospheric movement are also due to convection, including wind and some of the hydrologic cycle. For example, a foehn wind is a down-slope wind which occurs on the downwind side of a mountain range. It results from the adiabatic warming of air which has dropped most of its moisture on windward slopes. Because of the different adiabatic lapse rates of moist and dry air, the air on the leeward slopes becomes warmer than at the same height on the windward slopes.
   Clearly, the temperature gradient may change substantially in time, as a result of diurnal or seasonal heating and cooling for instance. This most likely happens during an inversion. For instance, during the day the temperature at ground level may be cold while it's warmer up in the atmosphere. As the day shifts over to night the temperature might drop rapidly while at other places on the land stay warmer or cooler at the same elevation. This happens on the West Coast of the United States sometimes due to geography.
  
  Section::::Physical processes.:Weathering.
   Note that the presence of water in the atmosphere complicates the process of convection. Water vapor contains latent heat of vaporization. As air rises and cools, it eventually becomes saturated and cannot hold its quantity of water vapor. The water vapor condenses (forming clouds), and releases heat, which changes the lapse rate from the dry adiabatic lapse rate to the moist adiabatic lapse rate (5.5 °C per kilometre or 3 °F per 1000 feet)
  
  The actual lapse rate can vary by altitude and by location.
   BULLET::::- Altitude – Air temperature drops by approximately 1 °C for every 100 m rise above sea level. This means that on mountain ranges, modern periglacial conditions are found nearer the Equator than they are lower down.
   Low temperatures may have been exaggerated during the early stages of continental rifting. Geothermal heating peaks in crust about to be rifted; and since warmer rocks are less dense, the crustal rocks rise up relative to their surroundings. This rising creates areas of higher altitude, where the air is cooler and ice is less likely to melt with changes in season, and it may explain the evidence of abundant glaciation in the Ediacaran period.
   The temperature profile of the atmosphere is a result of an interaction between radiation and convection. Sunlight in the visible spectrum hits the ground and heats it. The ground then heats the air at the surface. If radiation were the only way to transfer heat from the ground to space, the greenhouse effect of gases in the atmosphere would keep the ground at roughly , and the temperature would decay exponentially with height.
   Section::::Climate.
   Section::::Climate.
   In the Earth's atmosphere, temperature varies greatly at different heights relative to the Earth's surface. The coldest temperatures lie near the mesopause, an area approximately 80 km above the surface. In contrast, some of the warmest temperatures can be found in the thermosphere, which receives strong ionizing radiation at the level of the Van Allen radiation belt.
  
  Temperature varies as one moves vertically upwards from the Earth's surface. It also depends on the change of latitude.
  
  Section::::Temperature range.
   Section::::Distribution.
   Mount Kenya straddles the equator. This means during the northern hemisphere summer the sun is to the north of the mountain. The altitude and aspect of the watersheds and main peaks results in the north side of the upper mountain being in summer conditions. Simultaneously, the southern side is experiencing winter conditions. Once it is the southern hemisphere summer, the situation reverses.
  
  Section::::Current Climate.:Weather systems.
   Air at the top of a mountain is usually colder than the air in the valley below, but the arrangement is not unstable: if a parcel of air from the valley were somehow lifted up to the top of the mountain, when it arrived it would be even colder than the air already there, due to adiabatic cooling; it would be heavier than the ambient air, and would sink back toward its original position. Similarly, if a parcel of cold mountain-top air were to make the trip down to the valley, it would arrive warmer and lighter than the valley air, and would float back up the mountain.
   Climate of Mount Kenya
  
  The climate of Mount Kenya has played a critical role in the development of the mountain, influencing the topography and ecology amongst other factors. It has a typical equatorial mountain climate which Hedberg described as "winter every night and summer every day."
   Section::::Geography.
  
  Section::::Geography.:Regional.
   The strong insolation leads to a strongly diurnal temperature cycle on the mountain with a day-night temperature gradient of about that in some environments can increase to over ; there are thus active freeze-thaw cycles. The warming also leads to the development of mountain breeze and valley breeze, convective clouds as well as occasional landspouts.
  
  Section::::Human activity.
   Section::::Wind systems.:Valley winds.
  
  Valley winds are best developed on clear summer days and are driven by horizontal pressure gradients. During the day, the valley is warmer than the flat terrain (because it contains a smaller volume of air receiving the same amount of radiation), which creates a lower pressure zone over the valley, entraining the air from the plains up to the valley. The opposite process occurs at nighttime, where the valley cools faster and the air flows back down to the plains .
  
  Section::::Wind systems.:Slope winds.
   A similar class of winds, the Sirocco, the Bora and Santa Ana winds, are examples where orographic lifting has limited effect since there is limited moisture to remove in the Saharan or other air masses; the Sirocco, Bora and Santa Ana are driven primarily by (adiabatic) compression heating.
  
  Section::::Effects of orographic lifting.:Associated clouds.
  
  As air flows over mountain barriers, orographic lift can create a variety of cloud effects.
   Decreasing air temperature usually coincides with increasing elevation, which directly influences the length the growing season at different elevations of the mountain. For mountains located in deserts, extreme high temperatures also limit the ability of large deciduous or coniferous trees to grow near the base of mountains. In addition, plants can be especially sensitive to soil temperatures and can have specific elevation ranges that support healthy growth.
  
  Section::::Factors.:Humidity.
   Section::::Past Climate.:Overview.
  
presuppositions: Due to heat rising, high up areas should not be cold.
corrections: The higher the area is, the less air there is, when this occurs pressure goes down and this also causes temperature to go down.
raw_presuppositions: Due to heat rising, high up areas should not be cold. If heat rises then higher areas should be hotter.
raw_corrections: The higher the area is, the less air there is, when this occurs pressure goes down and this also causes temperature to go down. The higher up you go, the less air there is, which means pressure goes down, which causes temperature to go down.