Deserts are one of the most interesting places on the planet, which is not at all surprising. These usually barren areas are home to rare species of animals and plants, they have unique features in the matter of natural characteristics. These natural areas for many people seem mysterious and mystical. It is known that in some deserts the weather changes dramatically: the temperature extremely decreases or rises over short periods of time. Why is it cold in the desert at night? Let's find out the main reasons.
Types of Deserts
Before analyzing certain reasons why it is cold in the desert at night, it is important to identify four main types of such terrain. There are hot and dry, coastal and cold deserts. Each of these types of natural zones is characterized by special weather conditions, only hot and dry deserts are subject to the above-mentioned extreme temperature changes.
What's happening?
Hot and dry deserts are commonly found in the southwestern United States, South Asia, South America, and Australia. These deserts can experience extreme temperature changes, with maximum values reaching + 44-49 ° C. While the minimum temperature can be -18 ° C. So why is it cold in the desert at night?
A remarkable feature of the hot and dry desert is that they do not differ in dense vegetation. This leads to the fact that there are not enough plants and trees in the territory to absorb sunlight and maintain heat. In other words, when the sun sets and ceases to be a source of heat, there is nothing in the desert to maintain heat, since this is the main task of plant life.
Why is it hot in the desert at night?
Concentrated precipitation occurs in hot and dry deserts, which usually occurs between longer periods without precipitation. In some seasons, for example in winter, it rarely rains in hot and dry deserts. In some desert places, the annual rainfall is less than 1.5 centimeters. This leads to a lack of humidity in the air. Humidity is necessary to block solar heat, without it, the temperature can reach + 49 ° C, as mentioned earlier. It also means that the lack of humidity causes the heat that the desert air is saturated in during the daytime to not be stored at night. This results in extreme temperature differences. That’s why it’s cold in the desert at night.
Due to the lack of plant life and humidity, it is not surprising that hot and dry deserts can lose twice as much heat at night than the same non-empty natural areas.
It is interesting!
Not all deserts cool at night. In addition, at certain times of the year, the temperature difference may decrease. Desert air really cools down incredibly quickly, but only if there is no cloud cover (the clouds act like a blanket, keeping warm), there is no wind and air humidity is low. For example, Dubai is, in fact, a desert on the coast. Deserts located close to the sea certainly suffer from temperature changes, but the difference between day and night indicators is not critical.
But the deserts, which are far inland, usually have higher temperature fluctuations, but even in the summer the night is never too cold there.
Total
Thus, the question of why it is very cold in the desert at night is partially relevant. However, many people mistakenly believe that extreme temperature changes are characteristic of all desert regions, when in reality this is far from the case. The most important factor in this matter is also the factor of geographical location.