What is a capping inversion?

Question

No wikipedia entires please.

Answer 1

A capping inversion is when the temperature in a layer of air above the surface increases.  This has the effect of stopping air from below from  rising through the inversion, thus "capping" the atmosphere there.  Now if the air below the inversion warms enough, it can overcome the inversion and in some cases lead to quick thunderstorm formation.

Answer 2

A capping inversion is seen as an increase in temperature most often occurring in the low levels of the atmosphere, though it can be found in the mid and high levels too, but are less rare the higher you get.  Its normally associated with high pressure.  High pressure circulates in an anticyclonic manner(clockwise when looking at the surface of the earth from space) and just like when you s***w the cap on a soda bottle it screws in a downward direction, the same occurs with high pressure as it spins.  This is called subsidence,  this is your cap, it presses down on the atmosphere below it preventing anything below from rising above it, unless the temperature of the atmosphere below reaches the same as the inversion then it will likely push right through and in the case of a thunderstorm it will allow for development of a thunderstorm cell.

Answer 3

We've all seen the effects of a capping inversion, but I am not sufficiently up on science to explain it.  It's a situation where you have hot, heavy, humid air held down near the earth when you'd think it really ought to rise.

check out:

http://www.stormtrack.org/library/foreca...

There's a good explanation (too complex for inclusion here) and a great graph showing the effects of a cap...holding warm moist air down near the ground, up to a few thousand feet thick, but sometimes a lot thinner.

Answer 4

A temperature increase with height.  This happens quite frequently in some places.  One of the most prevalent areas for this to happen is in the southeast quadrant of a semi-permanent High Pressure area.  An example of this is the usual stratiform clouds located off the coast of southern California.  This cloudiness is associated with the Eastern Pacific High Pressure center.  This stratus clouds layer usually covers thousands of square miles, and is quite persistent.  In the Southern California waters, you can notice that as the day heats up. the cloud layer begins to thin or burn off.  This thinning generally starts in regions closest to land and progresses westward.