"And now for the weather..."?

Asked by rebbel (35553

) August 14th, 2009

I have two questions about weather-phenomena:

1. Even if it is a cloudy day all day, i notice that, let’s say, 7 out of 10 times it’s getting sunny at about 16.00 – 17.00 hrs.
So, my question would be: is there a possible reason for the clouds to vanish specificaly at this time?
Or is it pure coincidence and/or all in my head?

2. This one is noticed by my girlfriend: whenever the sun goes down, she feels that the wind is lessening or disappearing.
Is there a known correlation between the sun (set) and the wind growing less or disappear totally?

ps. In case it matters, i live in the Netherlands, she lives in Greece.

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3 Answers

The wind one, yes. The sunlight creates thermals and thus more surface breeze.

The cloud one I believe is because that is the hottest part of the day.

Of course, these are not always the conditions, because other weather factors can alter these effects.

marinelife (62485

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@rebbel
I know this is unrelated to the question, but I loved Haarlem.

PerryDolia (3481

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They both make sense.
1. Clouds are condensed water that cannot dissolve in the the air. The relative humidity is 100%. As the day progresses, the temperature rises and hits it’s high late in the day. Warmer air can hold more water, so the relative humidity drops below 100% and the clouds dissipate.

2. Marina is correct. The winds tend to decrease near sunset as the heating of the air by the sun lessens.

PerryDolia (3481

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