Dry adiabatic to 10,000 feet.

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

As some will know, I used to give gliding weather forecasts under the guise of “weatherjack” so I had to pretend to understand soundings and Skew-Ts

There is a major gliding competition in the south of England and I had been looking at the forecast Skew-Ts.  I would not in my weatherjack days have dared to forecast dry convection (ie, little in the way of cumulus – perhaps haze caps) to 10,000 feet.  That would have been an outrageous prediction. Indeed, the Skew-Ts seen out of context would have been more typical of the Sahara or Namibia or Australia.  Yet that was how conditions on Saturday in southern England turned out.

Glider pilots of course love this but I have fears.  I have never seen anything like this before.  Yes, we have had hot summers but in these past few days there seems to have been a true desert-like lower atmosphere – and of course, very low humidity.  Worrying. 

Jack

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

Mike Rubin in his glider yesterday at the invrsion of almost 10,000 feet.  Picture courtesy Mike.

Jack

[Freddie]

There was a similar set-up over southern England and the Midlands during the mid-July heatwave.  There were dry adiabats on that occasion up to 13000 FT.