Hey There! Sorry it's been a while since I've posted, but there has been much to do. Storm systems to monitor, cold air to track - it seems like it's never ending. Over this week, arctic air will filter into the region, dropping our temperatures as our cloud cover retreats to the east. However, the influx of the cold air is not the only reason for the cool down.
Today I was asked: "How does clearing up (as it the clearing of the skies) make it cooler?" Well, it's best and easiest to compare our cloud cover to a blanket on your bed. The clouds trap the heat from the Earth during the day, and hold it in the lower levels of the atmosphere at night instead of letting it radiate out into space. The more holes you have in the cloud cover (or blanket), the less efficient it is to trap the heat produced underneath. Thus on a clear night, there is no "blanket" and all of our heat stored up during the day is allowed to radiate to space quickly, cooling us off. (This is known as radiational cooling.)
So even though a thick cover of clouds make it seem gloomy outside during the winter, they help to moderate our temperatures at night. So it's not all bad. Just think of them like a blanket, you want them during the night while you sleep, but hope they disappear during the day (only to hopefully return just before sundown).
Have a great day!
No comments:
Post a Comment