SESKStuff Everyone Should Know
SESK: Stuff Everyone Should Know · sesk.info/pilot-temperature-inversion

What happens to temperature with altitude inside a temperature inversion?

It increases with altitude.

  1. It drops faster than normal
  2. It stays exactly the same
  3. It increases ✔

Why: Normally air cools as you climb. In an inversion, a layer gets warmer with height, often because the ground cools fast on clear, calm nights. Inversion layers are very stable, with little turbulence inside.

Huh, didn't know that: The warm air at the top of an inversion acts like a lid, trapping weather and pollutants below it.

The dad joke
Why did the thermometer climb the stairs? It heard it was warmer up there.
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Sources

  1. FAA Aviation Weather Handbook (FAA-H-8083-28B), Chapter 5 https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/FAA-H-8083-28B.pdf

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