Why are cloudy nights generally warmer than clear ones?

Clouds are formed by the warm air in the atmosphere. This cloud acts as a blanket for the atmosphere. The earth gets heated during the daytime by the radiation emitted from the sun. At night, the earth emits infrared radiation.

The warmer radiation heats the air and rises upwards in the atmosphere. The clouds are formed in the top layer of the atmosphere. As a result, it serves as a barrier between space and Earth. The heat emitted from the earth will get trapped by the clouds, which will then emit the heat back onto the earth, thus making the earth warmer.

If there are no clouds, the heat emitted by the earth won’t get trapped in between. So, they directly escape into space and the temperature on earth slows down, while in the case of a cloudy night, the heat can’t escape and return back to earth and cause a warmer climate.

So, cloudy nights are warmer than clear ones due to their capability to trap heat emitted from the earth.