Clouds block most of the solar gain that cooks asphalt — but only most of it. On a hot day, overcast pavement can still cross the caution line for paw pads.
| Air temp | Asphalt full sun | Asphalt partly cloudy |
Asphalt overcast | Concrete full sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75°F | 123°F | 106°F | 89°F | 105°F |
| 80°F | 132°F | 114°F | 95°F | 112°F |
| 85°F | 140°F | 121°F | 102°F | 119°F |
| 90°F | 149°F | 128°F | 108°F | 127°F |
| 95°F | 158°F | 136°F | 114°F | 134°F |
| 100°F | 165°F | 142°F | 119°F | 140°F |
Swipe the table sideways →
Early afternoon (1 p.m.) on a mid-July day in the middle of the US, with the pavement's stored heat from earlier in the day included — the same way the app computes it. Yellow = at or above the 110°F caution line for paw pads; red = at or above 125°F, where damage can happen fast. Same thresholds the app uses.
Read the overcast column at 95°F: 114°F — the clouds took away most of the solar gain (full sun would be 158°F), but the pavement is still past the 110°F caution line. "No sun" and "safe" are different claims, and the gap between them is exactly what you can't feel through shoes.
Pavement gets hot because it absorbs direct sunlight faster than it can shed the heat. Cloud cover removes up to about three quarters of that solar gain — a real, big effect, which is why the overcast column looks so much friendlier than full sun.
But the remaining quarter still stacks on top of the air temperature. That's why the overcast column keeps climbing with the thermometer: on a genuinely hot day, the sky being gray doesn't get asphalt back under the caution line. And clouds move — a "cloudy day" often includes twenty fully sunny minutes, which is enough to reheat a dark surface.
Light-colored concrete absorbs noticeably less sun than dark asphalt — in our model it picks up about 60% of asphalt's solar gain, and the chart's last column shows what that buys you. On a marginal day, crossing the street to the concrete sidewalk is a genuinely useful move.
It is not a free pass: at high air temperatures even concrete in full sun reaches the caution line. Shade beats surface — fully shaded pavement of any kind sits near air temperature.
Press the back of your hand flat on the pavement for 7 seconds. If you can't hold it, it's too hot for paws — whatever the sky looks like. Charts (including this one) estimate typical surfaces; your street, today, is the thing that matters. More on the test and burn signs in When is pavement too hot for dog paws?
PawWeather (iOS) runs this same model against your local hourly forecast — sun, clouds, and surface — and shows go / caution / danger for each hour of the day, so you can pick the walk window instead of guessing from the sky. One-time purchase, no subscription.
The chart is generated by the same risk engine that runs inside the
app (make-cloudy.mjs executes it), so this page and the app cannot
drift apart. The pavement model is calibrated against published road-surface
measurements; thresholds (110°F caution / 125°F danger) are the ones veterinary
sources commonly cite for pad burns. Estimates, not guarantees — the 7-second
test on your actual pavement always wins.