Question

A desert experiences much wider daily temperature variations than does a humid environment. Explain why this occurs.

Answer 1

It is due to the humid environment. Now we know that humidity is nothing but the water vapours. Now in humid environment we have pleanty of water vapours. These water vapous form a layer in the sky. Due to this most of the heat in the form sun light which is coming to Earth's surface is reflected by the the water vapours. Due to this very less heat reaches the surface and due to this temperature does not increase too uch. In the night time as the source of heat is off land starts cooling by emitting the heat. But in humid conditions layer of water vapours i.e. clouds reflect it back to the surface thus inhibiying cooling. Due to this we get very less temperature variation in the humid areas. The best example we can take is any Coastal city like Miami.

Now in desert areas humudity is very low. That means sun rays without any obstruction hit the surface. Surface of Earth gets heated continuously and the temperature rises. In the night sa there are no or very less water vapours Earth's surface cools rapidly which results in the decrease in the temperature. Due to this phenomena we observe wider daily temperature variations in the Desert or Dry areas than Humid Environment areas.