In which of the following places is the difference between the day and night temperatures likely to be the highest?

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC CGL 2021 Tier-I (Held On : 13 April 2022 Shift 1)

Answer 1

The correct answer is Thar Desert.

Important Points

The difference between the day and night temperature is likely to be the highest in the Thar desert.
In the Thar Desert, the day temperature may rise to 50°C, and drop down to near 15°C the same night.
On the other hand, there is hardly any difference in day and night temperatures in the Andaman and Nicobar islands or in Kerala.
The Great Indian Desert, well-known as the Thar Desert, is a large and arid region in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.
It is the world’s 17th-largest desert and the world’s 9th-largest hot subtropical desert.
The Great Indian Desert lies between the Aravalli Hills in the northeast and stretches to Punjab and Haryana to the north, to the Rann of Kutch along the western coast, and the alluvial plains of the Indus River in the northwest.

Additional Information

The main reason for the stark temperature change is that desert air is extremely dry. In arid deserts like the Sahara and the Atacama Desert in Chile, the humidity — the amount of water vapor in the air — is practically zero, and unlike sand, water has a huge capacity to store heat.
Water vapor in the air traps heat close to the ground like a giant invisible blanket and stops it from dissipating into the atmosphere, according to World Atlas.
Air with high humidity also requires more energy to heat up, meaning it also takes more time for that energy to dissipate and for the surroundings to cool down.
Therefore, the lack of humidity in deserts allows these arid places to quickly heat up but also rapidly cool.