2. Parameters

Temperature/Levels » Lifting Condensation Level (LCL) Skew-T Procedure

Skew-T procedure to determine height of LCL

The LCL is located on a sounding at the intersection of the saturation mixing-ratio line that passes through the surface dewpoint temperature with the dry adiabat that passes through the surface temperature. In this example, air at the surface with T=9°C and Td=0°C will become saturated if lifted dry-adiabatically to 870 hPa, which is the lifting condensation level.

Note: When the moisture content in the near-surface layers varies significantly, an average moisture value of the lower layer may be used in place of the surface-parcel moisture value to compute the LCL.