Diurnal or static solutions are usually considered for radiative forcing of surface temperature. In this paper, short-time solutions, applicable to radiative transients caused by cloud motion, are described for both land and ocean surfaces. The short-time approximation predicts surface temperature changes independent of sensible and latent heat fluxes. The theory suggests the ocean skin temperature will have a response shorter than 10 s and so will follow changes in downward longwave flux. The theory is supported by results from airborne remote radiation measurements beneath clouds. Over the land deduced thermal inertia values agree closely with those predicted from geological data. Oceanic observations allow a viscous layer thickness to be estimated which is in agreement with previous direct findings. Measured temperature excursions demonstrate that cloud-related radiative forcing is significant and should be considered in boundary layer models which incorporate clouds.