What is a temperature inversion?

Question

No wikipedia entries please.

Answer 1

Atmospheric temp usually decreases with altitude. When warm air sits over this air mass, stratus clouds will form at the interface. The condition is described as stable. This occurs when a warm front over-tops cooler air.

Answer 2

The simple answer: an inversion is where the atmosphere warms with height.

The top of the inversion is the warmest, bottom of the inversion is the coolest.

Answer 3

a temperature inversion, is an increase in temperature with height, or to the layer within which such an increase occurs.  The weather questions site has a graph.

Answer 4

Temperature inversion is when a colder air mass sits over and "locks down " a warmer air mass. This is very localized and happens mostly in areas with valleys intermingled with hills. I worked at a nuclear plant in upstate NY, and many times during the colder months the radiation alarm would go off because of an inversion trapping in warmer air close to the plant. No big deal. It goes away in good time.