does cloud cover affect humidity percentage?

Answer 1

Hi my friend,
Humidity percentage and cloud coverage do affect each other. As humidity increases, cloud amount increases.

Humidity is the amount of moisture found in the air. When water in the oceans, lakes, rivers and streams is warmed up (by sunlight and/or other contributed factors), it tends to evaporate and move upward into the atmosphere. Water, that has evaporated, rises to a certain level of altitude in the atmosphere, at which the air around it is cold enough to cause condensation. When moisture condenses, clouds are formed. The more the amount of moisture is found in the air (humidity), the more clouds are formed. Once the clouds become large enough and heavy enough, rain, snow or hail will occur.

However, cloud coverage has a very little affect on humidity percentage. In fact, humidity percentage is mostly affected by the amount of moisture in the air. And the amount of moisture found in the air is mostly affected by the amount of water evaporates and rises up in to the atmosphere. The amount of water evaporates is dependent on how warm water in the oceans, lakes, rivers and streams are heated by sunlight and other factors.

Answer 2

Cloud Cover Percentage

Answer 3

Actually, cloud cover can have a big influence on relative humidity but not in the way that some people would think.

Cloud cover often does not have a direct influence on the amount of water vapor in the air. That is more controlled by the source of the low level flow (that is, is the air off an ocean or coming from the desert areas)

What cloud cover can have a big influence on is the air temperature. If the cloud cover is solid and extensive, surface temperatures during the afternoon can be as much as 15 to 20 degrees cooler than they would have been if it had been a sunny day. And since RH is a ratio of amount of water in the air compared to the amount needed for saturation which is tied to temperature, it can mean a big difference.

Just as an example I did some quick estimates for my location today. We will be sunny with a high near 60 F. If water vapor amounts do not change, the afternoon RH will decrease to 27% today. I then reworked the forecast as if it was going to be cloudy all day and came up with a forecast high of 48 F. Reworking the RH calculations gave me a forecast RH of 42%.

That change in cloud cover would make a world of difference for certain people. Such as firefighters working a wildfire. RH below 25 percent is a critical value and worry firefighters. Often at RH values around 20% and lower, fires are very difficult to contain and are dangerous to fight. Above 40% is an area where fire behavior is not as intense and allow firefighters a chance to contain and suppress fires.

So yes, cloud cover does affect RH values and can be critical in certain applications.

Answer 4

Cloud cover can sometimes affect the humidity.
We know that warm air can hold more moisture than cold air.Sometimes cloudiness keeps the air between the cloud and the earth's surface warm for a longer duration, thus allowing the warm air to absorb more moisture.Thus humidity can be affected by cloudiness.This is explained further below.
Clouds are good reflectors of solar radiation,only a small amount being absorbed.
So,when there is cloudiness,the small amount of radiation that was absorbed is used only to raise the temperature of the cloud.If,now,the temperature of the earth's surface is lower than that of the cloud,the cloud will emit in terms of long waves which will again be reflected by the earth and this portion of radiation will thus remain almost confined in between the earth's surface and the cloud.
Thus, cloudiness maintains this high temperature which in turn will continue to hold more moisture.In this way cloudiness affects humidity sometimes.

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
does cloud cover affect humidity percentage?

Answer 6

Yes it does and to make a long story short; humidity is the measure of water vapor in the atmosphere. Clouds are water vapor condensing on pollution in the atmosphere. The higher the humidity percentage is, the more clouds there'll be in the atmosphere.

Answer 7

C'mom, think it through before you ask!