The terms stable and unstable refer to how much vertical motion you have in the atmosphere.
If the atmosphere is stable, you have less vertical motion. If the atmosphere is unstable, you have more vertical motion.
How you could think of this is like a wood stove. When the damper is shut, you don't have air rising up and your fire activity is low. When the damper is open, you have more air rising up the chimney and your fire activity increases.
Unstable atmospheric conditions can be supported in several ways…
Mountain ranges, low-pressure systems, cold fronts, warm fronts, and the jet stream.
If your atmosphere increases in temperature as you go up, that's an inversion.
This is usually a very stable atmosphere.
Three kinds of inversions are marine inversions, overnight radiation cooling inversions, and subsidence inversions.
There is typically a diurnal pattern of stability in the atmosphere…
Nighttime is when you have stable air, and the afternoons are when you'll typically have unstable air.
This is due to daytime heating, which makes your air warmer, which makes it less dense, which promotes rising motion.
One thing that can get in the way of that is if that daytime heating is blocked by smoke or clouds.
Fire in California’s Ecosystems,
Ch. 3 Fire Weather Principles (pg. 30-31)
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