| SFC WARMING- SENSIBLE VS. LATENT HEAT
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METEOROLOGIST JEFF HABY
In the two diagrams below it will be assumed that the weather conditions are similar in the morning. What is different is that the diagram
on the right has significant vegetation and moist soil while the left side of the diagram has very little vegetation and dry soil. This
would be similar to comparing the moist S.E. U.S. to the dry S.W U.S. The temperature will warm to a greater extent on the dry soil
with little vegetation surface since a greater amount of the solar radiation is going into warming the land. In the location with
a moist soil and vegetation, some of the solar energy is being used to vaporize water, supply energy for photosynthesis and warm
a larger surface area of vegetation. Vaporizing water absorbs latent heat and this is a cooling process. The evaporation of moisture
causes the humidity to be much higher over the moist soil/vegetated location but at the same time the temperature is cooler also. In
the S.W. U.S., summer temperatures often climb over 110 F in the summer. In the S.E. U.S. when the soils are moist and the vegetation
is lush, the temperature has a difficulty climbing over 100 F. The amount of moisture and vegetation at the surface has a significant
impact on the high temperature for the day.
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