3. Stability

Changing Stability » Moistening Introduction

Conceptual sounding animation showing increased instability due to moistening at low levels

It is fairly simple to understand how warming the surface temperature of a sounding renders the atmosphere more unstable. However, increasing the surface dewpoint can also increase the instability. In this animation, increasing the surface dewpoint lowers the LCL so parcels do not have to be lifted as far to become unstable.