Albedo is the key to temperature control for Earth
The rapid response of temperature to night and day and the rapid response of temperature to winter and summer helps explain what we need to know. Earth temperature does not get very much out of balance.
Unless a front is coming through or a storm occurs, daytime temperature does tend to peak in the afternoon. There is a two or three hour lag for temperature to catch up with whatever out of balance that exists. Then there is the longer imbalance with seasons. The hottest day is not usually on the longest day. Every winter it does snow and within that winter, snow extent increases. Every summer ice melts and general snow extent decreases. This may not happen at a particular place but this does happen overall. This difference in albedo does help augment the lag, at least most of the lag. Some lag is in how long it takes to cool and warm water. If you look at a major warming period and a major cooling period and pick the point on each where the temperature is about the same, then you have picked the point where albedo is likely close to the same. There is not a major imbalance of temperature that is causing the increase or the decrease. There is not a major imbalance that is causing ice volume increase on one and is causing ice volume decrease on the other one when the temperature is nearly the same. That would defy the laws of simple physics.
Land based Ice is retreating and the resulting albedo change is causing warming on one and land based Ice is advancing and snow, ice and cloud albedo is causing cooling on the other.
Ewing and Donn were largely correct when they proposed this theory in the 1950's.