are cloudy nights or clear nights cooler on earth?

Answer 1

Cloudy nights are warmer because you are under a Low Pressure system so it feels warm and humid and a little moisty. In the other hand, clear nights are cooler because you are under a High Pressure system, which it tends to be cool.

Answer 2

Water vapour is a powerful absorber of the terrestial radiation emitted by the earth's surface.It is because of this property of water vapour that the atmosphere near the earth's surface does not cool rapidly when there is a layer of low or medium cloud cover.During night,the earth's surface starts cooling and when the temperature of the earth' surface becomes lower than that of the cloud layer above it, the cloud re-radiates the already absorbed radiation( by the water vapour) back to the earth's surface.So the cloudiness keeps the temperature low by day and comparatively high at night.So cloudy nights are warmer.
But, if clear nights are there,the radiation given out by the surface will escape to space cooling the surface sufficiently because there is no cloud cover to prevent the terrestial radiation from escaping into space.So clear nights are cooler than cloudy nights.

Answer 3

All other things being equal, a clear night should be cooler than a cloudy night.

While there are a lot more dynamics going on, basically you can thing of it as the clouds act like a blanket and allow less heat to radiate out into space keeping the surface warmer.

Answer 4

clear nights are cooler. the clouds reflect heat back towards the earth and slightly warm the air, while on a clear night there is nothing to block the escpaing heat.

Answer 5

It really depends on what time of year it is.