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| Overlooking Kathmandu http://www.sacred-destinations.com/nepal/kathmandu-boudhanath-stupa |
Nepal is small. At only 147,181 km2, Colorado (269,837 km2) is almost twice its size!
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| Image courtesy of wunderground.com-- A weather station that serves the Kathmandu Valley is located in Patan, about 5 km south of Kathmandu. |
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| In the heart of Nepal is the Kathmandu Valley. The Himalayas overlook Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur (above), three of the Valley's major cities. http://parnassus-art.com/bhaktapur.html |
Below
are weather data from 2010 that summarize the Kathmandu Valley's climate.
Kathmandu experiences a rainy season during the summer months. As a result, the
"high" and "low" lines on the weather graph below come
together from approximately June through September. This indicates that the
higher humidity experienced in these months contributes to more latent heat and
less sensible heat flux from day to night. The Bowen Ratio for this continental
location would be higher during the winter, spring, and autumn months and
higher during the summer. I estimate the summertime BR at about .30; for the
winter, my estimate is approximately .60.
An
important factor to determining latent and sensible heat flux is albedo. Using
the known averages for earth's albedo (.306) and the earth's "greenhouse
factor" (1), the average surface temperature of our planet is 58.9 ◦F (determined using the GEEBIT program). If the albedo increased to .406 (with the greenhouse factor
remaining constant) the average surface temperature would decrease to 39.1 ◦F. Conversely, if the albedo were to decrease to .206, the
average surface temperature would increase to 76.1 ◦F. If the greenhouse factor were to increase by 10%, the average
surface temperature of earth would increase to 63.9 ◦F. If the greenhouse factor were to decrease by the same amount,
earth's average surface temperature would decrease to 53.8 ◦F
Any change that would affect earth on a global scale would also affect the Kathmandu Valley accordingly. An increase in albedo, for example, might mean more snow in the wintertime, which would lower sensible heat during these months.
