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specific heat Amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance by 1° C at sea-level atmospheric pressure. This property tells how fast an object or material will heat up (rise in temperature) in response to a source of heat. The specific heat capacity of water is the highest of all common materials (solids and liquids). This means that of all materials, water resists heating the most which accounts for its extreme importance as a weather moderator in the air. The west coasts of continents have much milder weather than their eastern counterparts because the onshore flow of wind in the west is moist and resists temperature change. By the time this same air reaches the east coast, it is dry and can change temperature rapidly bringing much more severe weather. See AM-1106 for an explanation of why land heats more rapidly than water when exposed to the sun.

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