Temperature Inversions

Temperature inversions happen quite often in Jackson. It's an interesting phenomenon because a warmer, less dense air mass moves over a cooler, more dense air mass. An inversion can be simply described as "when a section of the atmosphere becomes warmer as the elevation increases", as explained on csun.edu. In this part of the country, the warm air hovers at the mountain tops and above, while the cold air lays in the valley. For example, today's weather forecast for the ski resort includes an upper-mountain temperature of 30°F and a base temperature of 19°F.

Furthermore, an inversion "occurs in the vicinity of warm fronts, and also in areas of oceanic upwelling such as along the California coast. With sufficient humidity in the cooler layer, fog is typically present below the inversion cap. An inversion is also produced whenever radiation from the surface of the earth exceeds the amount of radiation received from the sun, which commonly occurs at night, or during the winter when the angle of the sun is very low in the sky. This effect is virtually confined to land regions as the ocean retains heat far longer.", as stated on Wikipedia.

Besides low lying cloud formations in Jackson, temperature inversions are responsible for severe thunderstorms, tropical cyclones, tornadoes in the midwestern US states, the polluted air of Los Angeles, and the rolling fog of San Francisco.