Assessing Atmospheric Stability 

• The bottom line - compare an air parcels temperature (T_p) with the environmental temperature (T_e) at a given altitude

  • if T_p > T_e, parcel rises
  • if T_p = T_e parcel does not move up or down
  • if T_p < T_e parcel sinks

• So, to assess stability, what two pieces of information do we need?  ANSWER

• Vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature are collected at 12, 00 UTC every day at select NWS offices by launching balloon soundings: 

• check out the real-time sounding data......