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Re: Winds and temperature

At 13:56 16/02/04 -0800, John Denker wrote:
-- Once a cold layer forms, it will tend to stay there since it
is an inversion. The normal profile of the air is to be
warmer below and cooler above, right at the very edge of
convective instability.

I wouldn't have said that. Yes, the normal profile of the air
is to be warmer below and cooler above but even this normal profile
is typically pretty stable.

Even if the surface air is not allowed to cool (as on a cloudy
night), so that the typical "warm air below and cool air above"
is unchanged, mixing the surface air with the air above will, due
to adiabatic warming, lead to *warmer* temperatures at the surface.

____________________________________________________
Robert Cohen; 570-422-3428; www.esu.edu/~bbq
East Stroudsburg University; E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301