Deserts are some of the most interesting places on the planet, which is not at all surprising. These normally barren areas are home to rare animal and plant species and are unique in terms 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 drops or rises extremely in 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 the specific reasons why the desert is cold 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 areas has specific weather conditions, only hot and dry deserts are subject to the aforementioned extreme temperature changes.
Whathappening?
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 peaks reaching +44-49°C. While the minimum temperature can be -18 °C. So why is it cold in the desert at night?
A notable feature of the hot and dry desert is that they do not have dense vegetation. This leads to the fact that there are not enough plants and trees on the territory to absorb sunlight and save heat. In other words, when the sun sets and ceases to be a source of heat, there is nothing in the desert to keep warm, since this is the main task of plant life.
Why is it cold at night in hot deserts?
Hot and dry deserts experience concentrated rainfall that usually occurs between longer periods without rain. At some times of the year, such as winter, it rarely rains in hot and dry deserts. In some desert places, the annual rainfall is less than 1.5 centimeters. This results in a lack of moisture in the air. Humidity is needed to block the heat from the sun, without it temperatures can reach +49°C as mentioned earlier. It also means that the lack of humidity means that the heat that the desert air saturates with during the daytime is not retained at night. This results in an extreme temperature drop. Herewhy is it cold in the desert at night.
With a lack of plant life and moisture, it's no surprise that hot, dry deserts can lose twice as much heat at night as similar non-empty natural areas.
This is interesting
Not all deserts cool off at night. In addition, during certain times of the year, the temperature difference may decrease. The air in deserts does indeed cool incredibly quickly, but only if there is no cloud cover (the clouds act like a blanket to keep warm), there is no wind and the air humidity is low. For example, Dubai is, in fact, a desert on the coast. Deserts close to the sea certainly suffer from temperature fluctuations, but the difference between day and night is not critical.
Deserts that are far inland tend to have higher temperature fluctuations, but even in summer the night is never too cold.
Result
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 common to all desert areas, when in reality this is far from being the case. The most important factor in this matter is also the factor of geographical location.
