During heatwaves, there is no rain and the soil dries out. This further enhances the rising of heatwave temperatures. But remarkably, desiccated soils also have an advantage: they reduce air humidity and make a heatwave less deadly to humans. Heatwaves and droughts are causing acute excess mortality and damage to …
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Soil moisture conditions reflected in observations from weather balloons
It has long since been known that soil moisture controls the partitioning of energy fluxes at the land surface, and that this partitioning affects the humidity and temperature of the air. A global synthesis of how soil moisture impacts the properties of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), however, was missing. …
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