Inversion (meteorology)

Temperature inversion in an urban environment
Temperature inversion in the Lake District
Temperature inversion in the Lake District, England, forms clouds at a low level beneath clear skies.
Smoke rising in Lochcarron, Scotland, is stopped by an overlying layer of warmer air (2006).
Smog trapped over the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan during a temperature inversion.
Smoke-filled canyons in northern Arizona, 2019. During morning and evening hours, dense smoke often settles in low-lying areas and becomes trapped due to temperature inversions—when a layer within the lower atmosphere acts as a lid and prevents vertical mixing of the air. Steep canyon walls act as a horizontal barrier, concentrating the smoke within the deepest parts of the canyon and increasing the strength of the inversion.[1]

In meteorology, an inversion (or "temperature inversion") is a layer of warmer air held above colder air. Normally, air temperature gradually decreases as altitude increases, but in an inversion this relationship is reversed.[2]

An inversion traps air pollution, such as smog, close to the ground. An inversion can also suppress convection by acting as a "cap". If this cap is broken for any of several reasons, convection of any moisture present can then erupt into violent thunderstorms. Temperature inversion can cause freezing rain in cold climates.

  1. ^ Smoke Filled Canyons, Arizona
  2. ^ Service, NOAA's National Weather. "Glossary – NOAA's National Weather Service". w1.weather.gov. Retrieved January 19, 2017.

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