Eli5: How is it possible that deserts are super hot at day time and below freezing point at night time?
In: Earth Science
ELI5: What is “heat”? It’s the measurement of things jiggling around. When it’s daytime, the heat from the sun hits everything and makes it jiggle faster and makes it “hot”. When the sun goes away, everything jiggles slower and slower until the sun comes back again.
It turns out water is *really* good and jiggling long after the sun goes away, so it is able to store that heat energy for a long time. Since desert air lacks a lot of water, it can’t store that heat, and has massive fluctuations in temperature from day and night.
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