Why are cloudy nights generally warm?
482581
Because the clouds act as our big fluffy warm blankey, silly.
28572
At dusk, the land has begun to cool but the ocean, being water, retains heat longer than the land does.  The temperature differential causes a wind to blow out toward the ocean due to the rising warm air over the ocean.  This wind blows the clouds out into their thin and whispy shape.
739578
this is a weather term - it means an area of high pressure, leading to little or no clouds in the sky (i.e. hot weather in the summer, or cold nights in the winter).
1125684
Cooling occurs from the ground up. The ground is always radiating away heat and during night there's no heat received from the sun. Thus a calm & clear night tends to become colder as it progresses, and the temperature is lowest directly above the surface and increases going up - may be several °F colder a foot above the ground than where the thermometer is at about 6-7 feet.\n\nSome sunshine is recieved with the twilight before sunrise, but very little. Even after sunrise, obstructions along the horizon can prevent heating of the ground right away. Once the ground  is heated, it doesn't take long for the temperature at 6-7 feet above ground to increase - yet that is often after sunrise - especially with a snow cover which does not absorb sunlight well.\n\nA phenomenon which can sometimes contribute to this is that with the first significant amount of heating, convection mixes the air right above the ground. As mentioned previously, that cooler air in the first foot or so can be kicked up and brought across the sensor at 6-7 feet for a brief time before the entire layer mixes and is warmer. A minimum temperature record was broken at KMPO airport this past December 14 that way - temperature decreased from -3° to -9° over a period of about 20 minutes just after sunrise. I had 2° only 3 miles away & 300 feet lower - occured here too, but not as much.\n\nDuring a cloudy or breezy night, none of the above applies.
420792
49 degrees and cloudy
598470
Yes uv rays are still emitited through clouds. but not at night.
12325
Another individual stated that the clouds act as a blanked and keept the earth warm.  That is an accurate answer. So, let's look a little deeper.\n\nFirst, clouds are the formations of moisture.  The thicker the clouds, the more moisture that is in them. \n\nNext, remember that heat rises.  During the day, the earth is warmed.  It cools at night.  The heat rises into the air.\n\nWater has a high specific heat, meaning a large amount of energy is needed to heat the water.  Likewise, it take a long period of time to cool the water.\n\nAs the clouds cover the earth, they are insulating the land.  Thus when the heat rises, it hits the clouds creating a barrier.  Thus the rate of cooling is slower than when there is not any cloud cover.\n\nPlease note there are exceptions to the rule.  We've all seen or heard of snowstorms coming in and the air is cooling very quickly.  But the general rule is that on a cloudy winter night, the temperature will not drop as low as if there were no clouds.  And you are less likely to scrape frost from your windshield.
199576
Now it is 60 degrees and cloudy......Last night when i really tried to answer this question, 59 degrees and thunder showers and wind....This is in Ohio.
160273
I don't know if it's cloudy or bright.
376761
This is a trick question. There really isn't much of a difference. They all mean the sky is part clear, and part cloudy. It just gives us a larger vocabulary to work with. \n\nAlthough most of the time, we'll tend to use it as a bit of psychological factor. If the forecast is improving (as in, rain event is just ending and we'll clear up a bit), we'll usually go partly sunny. \n\nIf the forecast is deteriorating (as in, it's sunny now, but rain moving in tomorrow), we might say mostly cloudy as the condition during the increasing clouds. \n\nWe tend to save 'partly cloudy' for nighttime, since we can't use partly sunny.
833749
Clouds are water vapor. Think of it like a pocket of fog in the sky.
30608
Clouds are formed when warm moisture laden air is forced upwards either by a physical obstruction such as a hill/mountain or by being heated by the ground/sun.\nAs it rises it cools, and cold air can hold less moisture than warm air, so the vapour condenses out into droplets that form our clouds.\n\nFog is caused when moisture laden air is cooled by contact with the ground or water, it gets colder and colder until any moisture condenses out.  Fog forms as a layer as the air above it tends to be warmer due to rflected heat from the sun and also becauseof the lack of wind to stir the two layers together.  This is often referred to as an inversion.
47849
It has to do with moisture saturation.  Big tall clouds have this unlike the thin high cirrus clouds.
534829
Check these factors out\n\n1.  The amount of pollutants in the air are lower at night\n2.  The amount of oxygen released by plants is maximum at night and C02 levels are least reduced.\n3.  Humidity levels are generally high at night\n4. Charged particles are less at night, because there is no more "ionizing" sunlight (smell is an electrochemical process\n\nI could think of other reasons, but I'm out of ideas.
1017029
That's not the way it works...in the summer, it's warmer because the earth tilts on it's axis towards the sun...the suns radiation then has a direct 'shot' at us. In the winter the earth tilts away from the sun, and the suns rays have to go through much more of the atmosphere to get to us...\n\nAs for being cooler...I think it has to do with air pressure at higher altitudes, and being further from the heat being reflected off the ground...
577504
Basically, because of the very low moisture content in the desert air.\nThe energy that comes from the Sun, can be used to heat (raise temperature, sensible heat), or to evaporate water (latent heat). When there is no water to evaporate, it is all used to elevate the temperature, making it so hot.\nAt night, on the other hand, there are no clouds to prevent loss of long wave radiation (heat), so the temperature drops largely.
18994
a night with no stars is due to the cloud cover. this covers also prevents the pollution,air and other gases from going up.which results in warmer nights.a night with stars is cooler