how come in some areas with warmer climates, it’s still genuinely hot outside during the nighttime? Where is that coming from
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If it’s near water, it’s retained heat from the water being released. It can also be the ambient air that retained the heat. The sun going away doesn’t mean the heat it imparted goes away instantly
The same reason as when you take something out of the oven it’s not instantly at room temperature.
A lot of it, largely in urban areas, is due to the heat island effect. In cities like Phoenix, AZ the blacktop roads and cement absorb a lot of the heat and release it once the sun goes down. You’ll find in the outer more sparsely populated areas that the desert is actually quite cold at night.
The ground will also absorb heat then radiate it out when there is no more solar radiation coming in. You will be shocked to know this is an oversimplification, as it is always radiating if it is above zero, but the net result is warming when there is no more radiation coming in
Here in Las Vegas it’s because the ground gets hot during the day and radiates that heat at night. During the summer, it stays over 100F/39C until after midnight.
In humid areas, this is because the extra water vapor in the air holds heat much better than the air itself. This causes the air itself to stay warmer and retain the heat from the day even after the sun goes down.
What a strange experience to walk out of a casino in Vegas in July around midnight and it was so hot. Peculiar feeling of a black sky and hot air.
The air itself can be warm or cold, due to how much it’s previously been warmed by the sun, and the movement and interaction of warm and cooler air is one of the main drivers of weather.
The interaction between the sun and the warmth of the air is what changes the temperature during the day, particularly how much it cools down overnight.
Sunlight hit the ground and warms up the ground heat is slowly radiated back from the ground during the night, if there is cloud cover that radiated heat is kept in closer to the ground rather than escaping.
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