Recent Inversion Timing

Posted: 08 Jan 2025 05:30 AM, Views: 528
Iowa State University has three of its "Soil Moisture Network" stations outfitted with additional temperature and wind sensors to help diagnose near surface temperature inversions. The primary application of this data is for agricultural spraying operations, but for meteorologists, the data can be interesting to look at any time of the year. The featured plot presents the difference between the 10 foot and 1.5 foot above ground level air temperature for a site near Ames. Red shading indicates that the 10 foot temperature is warmer. The plot shows the minute by minute values since 1 December. Of interest are many of the recent days since the arrival of modest snow cover. The presence of snow is a game changer for the surface energy budget with the primary impact being the redirection of much of the sun's inbound energy back into the atmosphere instead of heating the ground and helping to warm near surface air temperatures.
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