Caribou, ME – Residents in northern Maine woke up to unusual atmospheric conditions today as the National Weather Service in Caribou reported a rare “double inversion” detected during its 7:48 a.m. weather balloon launch.
According to the NWS Caribou, the first layer of inversion, known as the “morning inversion,” formed when the ground rapidly lost heat overnight, causing cooler air to be trapped below a layer of warmer air. This phenomenon often leads to fog or reduced air mixing near the surface.
A second inversion was detected aloft due to warm air being pulled into the region ahead of an approaching storm system expected to bring rainfall later this week. In the troposphere, air typically cools with height, but when it warms with height, meteorologists refer to it as an inversion.
At the surface, the temperature was recorded at 51°F. Around 1,969 feet above ground level, it measured 54.7°F. Higher up, at roughly 7,217 feet, temperatures dropped to 34.3°F before warming again to 45.3°F near 7,546 feet, highlighting the unusual double-layer pattern.
The troposphere—the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere—holds nearly all weather phenomena. Today’s rare profile illustrates the complex air patterns that can develop ahead of storm systems.
