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That is, water has a high heat of vaporization, the amount of energy needed to change one gram of a liquid substance to a gas at constant temperature. Waterâs heat of vaporization is around 540 cal/g at 100 Â°C, water's boiling point. Note that some molecules of water â ones that happen to have high kinetic energy â will escape from the surface of the water even at lower temperatures.
This change of phase (from a liquid to a gas) requires heat, called the latent heat of condensation. When water evaporates, it removes heat, lowering the temperature of the surface. For both water and land surface, most of this heat energy comes from the surface, not from the air. Evaporative cooling, along with convection, helps keeps the surface of the Earth from getting too hot. Interesting facts: