Postby Wingman » Thu Aug 19, 2004 5:32 am
1) The earth heats the air near the ground, making it warmer near the surface and colder as you gain altitude
2)Moisture attaches to particles in the air. Takes significant upward movement to make the really tall, towering cumulus clouds. I don't know how they all stick together and make one cloud. But I know you can't outclimb a towering cumulus on a hot summer day in a light-aircraft. And when you fly through one, you experience the moving air currents inside.
3)Cloud bases will form at the level where the temperature and dewpoint are the same.
I posted a while back how you could figure the average height of cloud bases by taking the temperature/dewpoint spread and dividing by 4.4. For instance if the temp is 75 and the dewpoint is 45, then divide 30 by 4.4 and you get roughly 6.8. You can pretty much guesstimate the cloud bases to be at 6800 feet.
The standard lapse rate is 2 degrees Celsius for every 1000 feet of altitude. For example, if the temperature is 15 C (59F) at sea level, and you climb to 10,000 feet, it will be on average, -5C (23F) at 10K.
No, I'm not a weather geek. I just got through studying all of this again to get back current on my license.
ISAIAH 40:31
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