The reason a tire looks flatter in cold weather is because it actually
is !! When your tires get colder, the air inside the tires actually
shrinks and causes the pressure of the tires to go down, and
they look flatter. And here is why: hopefully sometime in high
school chemistry or physics, you'll learn about the "Ideal Gas Law."
Basically what this law says is that for a gas (such as the air in your
tires) the pressure, volume, weight, and temperature are all related.
If you have the same "amount" of air, and the temperature goes
down, then either the volume (the amount of space the air uses), or
the pressure, or both must go down as well. This is exactly what
happens in your tires. It gets colder, and the pressure in the tires
goes down, so it looks flatter.
You can actually measure this if you have a good tire pressure
gauge. As you drive, the temperature of the tire will increase,
causing pressure to go back up. So with your tire gauge, measure
the pressure in the tires first thing in the morning before the car
goes anywhere. Then, after driving around a while, take another
measurement. What you will see is that the pressure went up.
The tires may also actually look less flat (depending on how cold it was
to begin with, and how much they warmed up while driving). This
is also the reason that the auto companies tell you to set your tire
pressure when the tires are "warm". Because if you put the right
amount of air in when they're cold, after you drive a little while,
they'll warm up and then the pressure will be too high.
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