Map: Skew-T

The XC Skies version of a Skew-T plot is very simplified and used as a "sketch" of the temperature and moisture profile. With a selected model and hour, a click on the map can get you the option to select skew-t from the info window. The skew-t will look like this:

The red line represents temperature and the green line dewpoint (which are the typical colors in most skew-t plots found). Mousing over the plot will provide the values for that given level. In the example, we can see that at 5,084 feet (around 850 millibars / hPa) the dewpoint temperature is 43 degrees F, and the environmental air temperature is 62 degrees F. Also, the winds are 7 mph from the southwest. As you go up in height, you can see the total structure of the temperature and moisture profiles.

The red circles in these plots are added to connect the starting surface temperature and the location the lifted parcel of air will intersect the environmental air. A blue line connects these two cirlces when unstable condistions exist allowing thermals to rise. In this plot we can see the depth of the boundary layer is several thousand feet, making for nice soaring potential.

These skew-t plots are to be used for quick review of the soaring potential and provide an enormous amount of information if you are faimilar with skew-t basics.

A more rigorous explanation will be added for working with skew-t plots and these "sketches" in particular.