When there is a temperature inversion, you would expect to experience which change with altitude?

• A. An increase in temperature as altitude increases
• B. A decrease in temperature with altitude
• C. No change in temperature with altitude
• D. Temperature variability with altitude

Answer: (A)

In a temperature inversion, temperature actually gets warmer as you climb through a certain layer. Normally the air cools with height, but an inversion flips that, so you’d feel the air warm up the higher you rise within that layer. This happens when the ground loses heat rapidly at night and the air near the surface becomes cooler than the air above it, creating a stable stratification that resists vertical mixing. So, as you ascend through the inversion, you would experience an increase in temperature with altitude. The other options describe the usual cooling with height, no change, or just general variability, none of which define an inversion.