Monday was a very raw and not at all spring break like March day for Iowa. Much of the state stayed below 32 degrees Fahrenheit for the entire day! When it is cold at the surface, it is often interesting to look aloft to see how cold it is there as well. The featured chart presents mandatory level sounding temperature percentiles for the Omaha sounding from Monday morning. Indeed, the temperature percentiles aloft are cold as well for March, but you may wonder why things reverse as you reach 400 hPa and higher levels. The reason is when the lower atmosphere is colder than average, the thickness as measured by distance between pressure levels decreases and pressure levels higher up occur at lower altitudes. Temperatures are warmer at lower altitudes and so the temperatures reported at a given pressure level are higher.

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Tags:   sounding