Question

Emma is taking a well deserved vacation trip in Florida during the summer. She notices that although temperatures are hot, they are usually not higher than 95F. However, A few days earlier when she was in the dessert in Arizona, temperatures rose far above this. Why does this happens?

Answer 1

Temperatures are not independent of precipitation and a related factor, humidity. When humidity levels are low, most commonly during winter and spring, temperature has greater daily swings. When humidity levels are relatively high, such as during the summer monsoon, temperatures often fluctuate less dramatically from day to night. When there’s not much water available for evaporation, more of the sun’s energy can go toward boosting temperatures. That’s partly why Phoenix temperatures can regularly climb above 95 degrees F while the mercury rarely surpasses 100 degrees in more humid climates even closer to the equator. Because water vapor is a greenhouse gas, though, its presence in the atmosphere tends to hold in heat that might otherwise escape. In desert climates, this influence is most noticeable on summer nights, when cloudy skies can keep nighttime temperatures higher than they are on clear nights