What are the factors that influence diurnal range (oceanic influence, dryness...what else)?
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There are many factors which produce high diurnal ranges. Especially :
- high altitude
- location in interior of large landmasses, far away from seas
- dominance of high pressure systems
- lack of cloud cover
- middle rather very high latitudes (where high daytime maxima would be less likely)
- soil type - to some extent
- topography - valleys which trap cold air at night but rapidly warm up during the day
Much of what has been said fits with my thoughts, dryness, humidity, valleys, mountains, high pressure systems, lack of wind, etc.
With my experience, it isn't so much to do with elevation. In some cases, the high diurnal places are in valleys and the night temps are similar to what you would get in the mountains despite there being a big difference in elevation.
The place doesn't have to be dry, but it does need to be dry on some days to get the large diurnal range, and obviously the more dry days, the larger the range will look in the monthly averages.
In some places, while they don't normally have a big range, they can get some very big ones with wind coming in from a certain direction. This happens to Melbourne and that part of Victoria in the summer. You can get days like 9/42C, but that's a different thing to places that have big averages, which is what this topic is about.
LWC
Jan Max: 8.3c Min: 3.7c range: 4.6c
July Max: 22.6c Min: 14.6c range: 8.0c
Wisley
January
Jan Max:7.6c Min: 1.8c range: 5.8c
July Max:22.5c Min:12.0 range: 10.5c
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