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High Pressure: Warm or Cold?
Name: Danielle
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
In the mid-latitudes clear skies are typically associated with
warm conditions during the summer, but are also often associated with very
cold conditions in the winter. Why is this so?
Replies:
Energy comes into the surface of the earth through clear skies and it leaves
the earth's surface through clear skies. In the summer with long days the
net energy gain is greater than the loss. In the winter with shorter days
more is lost. Clouds act like a blanket that slows the temperature exchange
and moderates the temperature of what is under it (you and me). We do not
get as hot or as cold when there is a cloud cover.
You might want to research the term albedo.
Larry Krengel
Danielle,
In both cases, summer and winter, the physical cause of generally
clear skies is the same, subsiding air in a high pressure area.
When air subsides (moves lower in altitude), its temperature
increases, thereby reducing the relative humidity of the air,
thus preventing condensation and therefore clouds from forming.
However, cumulus clouds can form even in high pressure areas if
convective plumes of warmer and moister air (produced by the heating
of small areas on the Earth's surface by the Sun) rise from the surface,
and in the process, cool to the dew point, resulting in cumulus clouds
in a generally clear sky.
David R. Cook
Meteorologist
Climate Research Section
Environmental Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
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Update: June 2012
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