The trends of Thermodynamic indicators over Irene

Presented at the 34th Annual Conference of the South African Society for Atmospheric, 20-21 September 2018,UKZN.

Radiosondes are a valuable tool to analyze the vertical profile of the atmosphere. From these soundings we can derive several thermodynamic indices to evaluate the state of the atmosphere and the possibility of certain weather phenomenons. This study examines some of the commonly used indicies over Irene by examining data from the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) to evaluate the changing nature of the atmosphere over the Highveld.

Early results show a marginal increase towards a convective favoring atmosphere when analyzing the 12:00 UTC values of several thermodynamic derived variables including CAPE, CIN, KI, SI and LI possibly indicating an increasingly convective favoring atmosphere. The implications of this include the possibility of an increased frequency in events such as hailstorms, thunderstorms and flash floods.