In ancient times, people did not know for sure where and why in the evening, after a hot day, dew appears. It was even given divine significance. In principle, this trend affected all events that a person could not explain.
Properties of dew in the beliefs of the Slavs. Healing opportunities
Surprisingly, there were many beliefs associated with the incredible benefits of this very dew. Many said that it is very useful to walk barefoot in the morning on the grass covered with this moisture. Moreover - in the morning they took out the patients and laid them on cold dew.
To use the healing properties of dew in the treatment of diseases, it was collected in a jar and taken on an empty stomach. Surprisingly, many diseases went nowhere, they simply disappeared: vision was restored, wounds healed faster. It was believed that she possesses the energy of the earth, maternal energy. Thoughts on why dew appeared on the grass were uninteresting; this phenomenon was explained by divine intervention. More interested in its healing properties. Probably, now in villages or small settlements you will hear that your swollen legs recover very quickly in the morning, if you walk barefoot through the grass.
Scientifically Explained Dew
But the era of science has come, and they have clearly and simply explained this phenomenon - they figured out where the dew comes from and why it happens.
The definition of the phenomenon is as follows: these are some small drops of condensed moisture that settle on plants or soil during the onset of coolness in the morning or evening. What is needed for the dew to form? It is necessary that there be a warm day, after sunset there are no clouds and the sky is clear, as well as a favorable area - a surface that can easily give off heat.
Dew Point - A Little Physics From School Years
In physics, a concept such as the dew point is also associated with this concept . Who remembers from the school course, the dew point temperature is the value of the gas temperature at which the water vapor contained in this gas is cooled in an isobaric manner and becomes saturated above the flat surface of the water.
Simply put, this is the value to which the air temperature should drop. Then the formation of condensation from moisture will begin. Indications of temperature and humidity are very important. The higher the humidity, the higher the dew point temperature. With less humidity, it will be more difficult to reach the dew point.
Tears of angels or plain water?
The question of why dew appears in the evening after a hot day already contains half the answer. What was given such a high, spiritual, divine significance turned out to be an elementary condensate.
This is water that condenses on the surface of the grass while the earth at night releases heat energy into space. Naturally, not every water that appears on the surface of green plants in the summer in the morning is dew. Other atmospheric phenomena associated with moisture, such as rain (if we talk about the warm seasons), can leave their wet tracks on the ground. The difference is that rain condenses in the high atmosphere, when the dew forms directly above the surface of the earth.
Hot weather is one of the first important conditions for dew formation
Moisture in the air is always present, in one way or another. And the higher the humidity, the more likely the appearance of morning dew and its abundance. As mentioned earlier and as noted in the question of why dew appears in the evening after a hot day. It is a "hot day". Is this condition important?
Of course. An important role is played by temperature differences. Sharp thermal radiation in the evening, when the sun sets, begins to occur in an active way. That is, at the same time, the heat that was received during the day from the sun's rays begins to intensively leave the earth. This occurs in the fastest way on grassy meadows, and therefore grass in the fields is most often covered with dew.
How to determine the weather using dew?
But nevertheless, despite a simple explanation from the point of view of science, people nevertheless correctly used this phenomenon without the intervention of scientists.
For example, the
way dew appears was a kind of hydrometeorological center by which people could predict the weather the next day. The condensate, which falls late in the evening, disappears even before the sun sets, at dawn; this indicates that the day will be sunny, clear. Moreover, we can say with absolute certainty that there will be no precipitation on such a day. It is interesting that there are different types of dew, but it is precisely the one that falls in our latitudes that can give such a definition of weather.
Dew in the cold season
With why in the evening after a hot day dew appears, everything seems to be clear. But the funny thing is that the same process creates two peculiar and beautiful phenomena in nature. In the warm season, he gives us dew, and in the cold - he covers everything with hoarfrost.
To create this miracle, we also need our own conditions, but, in principle, the process is similar to how dew appears on the grass. The difference lies in the fact that this condensate lends itself to low temperatures, which is why it appears before the human eye in icy form. Its appearance is not so simple as it seems at first glance, but this is already a topic for a completely different conversation.