Why does the presence of large bodies of water

And for the same reason when it's cold, right, when it's cold outside, this water has a bunch of heat from before. So if it's cold out here, this heat that's stored up in the water Can be transferred back into the air into the land and everything. And it keeps the temperature kind of moderated. But if it doesn't rain, if you're in the middle of a drought, you have fluctuations between like hundreds of degrees and you know in the 40s and 50s at night, like in a desert.

So it has to do with the heat capacity of water and the water ex kind of like a buffer to prevent those fluctuations. Why do large bodies of water exert a temperature-moderating effect on their … Explain why oceanfront areas generally have smaller temperature fluctuations… From what you have learned about water, why do coastal regions tend to have … Why do climates near the coasts tend to be more moderate than those in the m… Why do islands and peninsulas surrounded by water not experience extremes of… Why does the evaporation of water cool the air near the water's surface… Explain how the high specific heat capacity of water can affect the weather … Problem If the winds at the latitude of San Francisco and….

View Full Video Already have an account? Michael S. Problem 68 Medium Difficulty Why does the presence of large bodies of water tend to moderate the climate of nearby land—to make it warmer in cold weather and cooler in hot weather? Answer Because of the large specific heat capacity of water. View Answer. More Answers Zulfiqar A. Discussion You must be signed in to discuss. University of Washington. Zachary M. Hope College. Aspen F.

University of Sheffield. This geometry of the water molecule causes it to have positively and negatively changed ends, known as polarity. Water is referred to a polar or dipolar molecule.

The large nucleus of the oxygen atom attracts the shared electrons causing this side of the water molecule to be negatively charged while the hydrogen side is positively charged. This polarity allows water to bond easily with adjacent water molecules. The hydrogen bond is the bond between two water molecules.

Water is a liquid rather than gas or water vapor at room temperature because of the strong hydrogen bond between the molecules of water. This strong bond causes water to resist molecular motion and remain a liquid at room temperature. The specific heat of water is greater than that of dry soil, therefore water both absorbs and releases heat more slowly than land. Water also is fluid, allowing the heat to be mixed to greater depth than on land.

The heat capacity is the product of the specific heat and the mass in g of the material. In regions north or south of the tropics, large bodies of water like the ocean release heat during the winter and soak it up during the summer, keeping temperatures within a more moderate range. In other words, the ocean acts a little like a heat sink -- and a very effective one at that. The uppermost 10 feet of the ocean can store as much heat as Earth's entire atmosphere. The oceans play a complicated role in coastal climates thanks to ocean currents, which act as giant conveyor belts transporting heat away from tropical regions toward the frigid poles.

Often this serves to keep coastal regions at northern latitudes warmer than they would be otherwise. The famous Gulf Stream, for example, transports heat north along the eastern coast of North America and ultimately toward Europe, ensuring that Europe enjoys a warmer and more moderate climate than it would without the stream. In tropical regions, both land and oceans remain warm year-round. The warm ocean waters give rise to tropical storms called cyclones or hurricanes, a feature of the tropics that can have a devastating effect on coastal regions.

As masses of water vapor rise from warm ocean water, the air becomes saturated and the water begins to condense, releasing huge amounts of heat so that the ocean surface remains warm, driving further evaporation and creating a deadly cycle.