Along with acceleration urbanization, the urban heat island effect is increasingly intensifying due to urban construction. In particular, the thermal environment of residential areas has a profound influence on the local micro-climate. Therefore, studying the thermal environment characteristics of residential areas is of great significance for understanding and improving the local micro-climate. To reveal the thermal environment characteristics of residential areas, this study focused on a residential area in a campus of Beijing by using thermal infrared imagery, and obtained 24 hours thermal infrared data under different weather conditions (clear sky, cloudy, overcast sky) in summer, then selected typical urban ground objects (buildings, iron sheds, asphalt roads, bare soil, trees and shrubs, etc.), and systematically analyzed the diurnal variations of objects in different regions. Finally, the interactive features of the ground objects' temperature were revealed by using a tangent method to determine the boundary ranges of the ground objects. The main results are as follows: (1) The surface temperature curve of artificial ground objects (such as buildings and iron sheds) shows continuously violent ups and downs because of the dramatic changes of solar radiation. It indicates that solar radiation is the main factor affecting the temperature change of ground objects during the daytime, with positive correlation with the temperature of ground objects. In the cloudy weather, the maximum temperature of ground objects occurs after 16:00. Cloud movement increases the temperature fluctuation of ground objects, especially in the cloudy weather. Asphalt roads have higher temperatures at night than other ground objects, and continue to radiate heat at night resulting in ambient temperature increases. Shadow could effectively reduce the amount of solar radiation absorbed by ground objects and reduce the surface temperature. Vegetation canopy thickness is negatively correlated with the temperature of ground objects. Therefore, in residential areas, increasing the vegetation canopy thickness and expanding shadow areas will improve the local micro-climate. (2) The strong temperature interaction between trees and bare soil at 06:00 and 14:00 indicates that significant heat exchange occurs throughout the day at the junction of ground objects. At 06:00, the temperature at the junction of lawn and sidewalk has a significant interaction, indicating that there is heat exchange between the lawn and the pavement from night to early morning. It helps relieve the high temperature of the road and the surrounding environment.