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George wrote:

> In the unlikely event that the inversion (cooler below, warmer above)
> extended upwards as far as the tops of the Chicago buildings, then
> they, too would appear higher than you would expect, raised in a
> similar way to the way the horizon gets raised. But more likely, such
> a temperature inversion will extend up from sea level, only to a
> fraction of that height. And so for light rays from the top of the
> building to the eye of the observer, only a fraction of their path
> would be through that inversion layer, and the rest of the path would
> be above it. That would result in a complicated picture for the
> refraction, and I would not know how to predict the details.

I suspect only Frank has the details of the inversion that day.  Hopefully
after the weekend he might shed some light on the situation.

I do suspect things are strange there, as in a recent post Frank mentioned
onshore breezes at night in Chicago.  That caught my eye.  One big heat sink
still warmer than the water.

Another oddity I have experienced is sailing to Chicago from Michigan City
(288d T--more like motor sailing or motoring on a few occasions)--When we
get near the steel mill south of Chicago (very light SW wind) we start to
see dark water.  Sure enough, wind, offshore (from the west).  As a steel
mill generates a *lot* of heat (most likely warms the local water too) I
would have expected an onshore.  But time and time again, there it is.

For those of you that don't automatically delete my posts, you know my
models are pretty simplistic.  For the life of me, I don't understand why
daytime warming of the land mass plus the intense local heat (updraft?)
generated by the mill doe not create an onshore breeze.

Any theories/thoughts?

Bill

   

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