At 09:57 9/28/99 , Mark Gajewski wrote:
>had breakfast outside this AM and the top of my outdoor table was wet with
>dew, but underneath it was dry.  The chairs pushed under the table were also
>dry so that's my scientific proof!!

I'm going to guess that you had a nice clear calm night.  This allowed your
table to radiate heat right off into space without it being reflected back
by cloud cover, and without much equilibration to the air temperature by
conduction.  The table got colder; while the chairs underneath were getting
heat back from the table, so did not cool as much and remained dry.

I'm particularly aware of this as I was just camped out on top of a hill in
Maine, New York (no kidding).  The air temperature only got down to about
38F or so, but the top of my empty cooler acquired a heavy layer of dew
which then froze solid.

david
David Beierl - Providence, RI
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"