Some Observations on the Destruction of the Morning Temperature Inversions in a Large and Broad Mountain Valley

Abstract

Observations of the vertical thermal and wind structure made in a large and broad valley are reported here. The growth of the convective boundary layer is found to be responsible for the destruction of the nocturnal temperature inversion. No sinking of the inversion layer was observed in response to the morning upslope flow following the profiles of both potential temperature and wind data. These observations alongside previous published work do not permit a generalization of the behavior of the flow and thermal ameture for all valleys. Characteristics like the length, the depth and the ridgetop width of the valley play an important role to the mechanism of the destruction of the temperature inversion.