Weather Tidbits: Environments for Thunderstorm Development

This edition of Weather Tidbits will discuss the difference between a capped and uncapped environment. Both of these have implications for the development of thunderstorms. In a capped environment, a warmer layer is aloft and causes an increase in temperature with height. This is a temperature inversion, and a capped atmosphere features this. Warm updrafts form as heat accumulates from the sun during the day. As long as the temperature is decreasing with height, air will continue to rise since warm air is less dense than cold air. A cap will prevent air from rising and halt thunderstorm clouds from growing. If the environment is uncapped or an existing cap erodes, that will allow air to continuously rise and lead to growing thunderstorm clouds. A cap can erode via efficient surface heating, especially if the warm layer aloft is thin.