The hottest and coldest days of the year lag the solstices by several weeks. Where is the latent heat stored that causes that? Obviously, it's some combination of land, sea, and air, but which (if any) is predominant?
[Update] I guess this is a bad question, in that it's based on the parochial assumption that this seasonal lag is universal. It's not - see How can the average coldest day of the year be before the winter solstice?. I'll close this in a couple of days.
