Cloud depth

[charlie]

Hi all, I'm doing my dissertation on cloud depth near and far from the jet steam, however I'm not doing meteorology as a degree, and it's been a while since I did any practical work, and that was only on tephigrams.

Basically, I'm struggling to understand how to calculate the cloud depth/thickness/height from skew t graphs and soundings.

The info I'm using is from - http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/europe.html

I've tried to read off the LFC and LCL from the chart and match it to the data up the side (:lol:) but it's not happening. And really, I'm confused about what each is and all that.


Obviously as I'm not doing straight meteorology (just one module that really interested me) I'm looking for as simple and straight forward results as possible!


I would be ETERNALLY grateful for any help at all, preferably as quick as possibly too!

Thanks in advance!

[senorpepr]

I'm no expert in Skew-Ts, but usually I'll attempt to get the cloud base by looking at where the temperature and dewpoint traces become within 5°C. Of course, the closer the traces are, the chances of more clouds. Then, I look at above that point to where the traces separate to more than 5°C. That gives me a decent idea of where the cloud tops are. Of course, the distance between the two would be the cloud depth/thickness.

I'm sorry I couldn't provide any exact answers. As far as I know, it's pretty difficult to nail down cloud specifics within a Skew-T.