Are the skies statistically more likely to be clear after midnight?

[tenbyfifty]

I don't know if anybody else has noticed this but I'm always gobsmacked by the number of times the sky seems to clear over in the early hours - even when its been belting down with rain all day you often get a gap in the weather for an hour or so at this time of day.

Am I imagining things or is it a known weather phenomenon?

[Chubster]

Not sure but is it something to do with the atmosphere cooling down, which I then think makes it easier to see...could be talking carp, im sure someone else will give a much better answer

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

It ALWAYS goes clear half an hour after you go to sleep, irrespective of what time that is.

Captain Chaos

[Kai]

I think Sods Law applies in this case

[tenbyfifty]

There may be some truth in it because I remember seeing an open university prog a while back that said that during summer, in the daytime, warm moist air rises above towns and cities and actually creates cloud above them, so at night when the city has cooled down a bit, the clouds may well dissipate. Don't think that applies in Winter though.

I'lll try and find a friendly meteorologist somewhere on the net...

[MartinB]

You loose the convection cloud. In fair weather the little fluffy clouds develop as the ground warms up and disappear again as it cools down

[geppetto]

On a slightly different tack

According to my moon pictures of late, It's been clearish

for about 3 months around full moonish and carp otherwise :?

[GazOC]

I think the Moon beams burn up the cloud Phil.

[geppetto]

That's it then

2.30 in the morning when there's a full moon and your good to go

[SteelRat]

Normally cloudy when I give up and go to bed, then crystal clear when I get up!!!

Saw on QI that we are more likely to have bad weather at the weekend - this a man-made phenomena

[tenbyfifty]

Normally cloudy when I give up and go to bed, then crystal clear when I get up!!!

Saw on QI that we are more likely to have bad weather at the weekend - this a man-made phenomena

Yeah I saw that, its do with pollution building up during the week causing cloud on theweekend when the factories

close - summit like that anyhoo.

[magician]

I really don't give a hoot what causes it, I just want C-L-E-A-R skies,

Cheers Frank.

[Brass n glass]

Kai Herb's right: it's the operation of Sod's Law, one of the basic laws of the cosmos. It also explains why, when it's been beautifully clear all day and you put your Mak out to cool, the rain starts pelting down just before the scope is ready for action.

[FLO]

The sky certainly becomes more steady (steadier?) after midnight because the heat stored up in all the brick and concrete has pretty much radiated away.

[ZOG]

In my experience the skys in the North East tend to be clear through the day and start clouding over in the late afternoon. I often come in from work between 3 and 5 am and believe me, if the skys were clear, the scope would be out. I was just saying to the wife the other day, it wasnt till I got a scope that I realised just how cloudy this country is.

[radioactive]

its plenty clear enough if we could only just get above them there clouds things