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WHAT IS STABILITY?

METEOROLOGIST JEFF HABY

The term stability comes up often in meteorological discussions. Two terms to focus on are stability and instability. The term stability refers to a temperature profile that is not conducive for storm development. When parcels of air rise they encounter an environment that causes the air to decelerate, stop and sink back down before storm convection can develop. Examples of stable layers are inversions and capping layers. Instability is the opposite and refers to a troposphere that is conducive for thunderstorm development. Unstable layers can be generated by strong solar heating of the ground surface, cooling aloft and low level warm air advection (especially when accompanied with moisture advection). Atmospheric stability and instability are important topics in operational meteorology given their importance to forecasting storms.