The featured chart presents air temperature observations from the Iowa airport weather stations on Monday. The dataset is partitioned by the reported presence of clouds and beautifully illustrates the impact of cloudiness on temperature. For those locations that experienced clear skies yesterday, temperatures nicely warmed during the afternoon hours and also cooled during overnight hours. While clouds reflect solar energy during the day and limit daytime heating, they act as a blanket during the night time and retransmit long wave radiation from the surface back to the ground thus limiting cooling.

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Tags:   clouds