A climatological study of the surface air layer of the Salt Lake Valley showed that inversions are frequent and important factors in the temperature structure over the valley. Radiosonde reports from the Salt Lake Airport near the center of the valley gave a fairly detailed picture of the developments of inland inversions over the valley floor, but offered no information as to the nature of the temperature structure near the rim of the valley. As an aid in correcting this deficiency, a set of stations, including a special automatic temperature recording network, was established in and near the mouth of a canyon opening into the valley from the east. Analysis of the data shoved that mountain inversions formed quite rapidly and strongly as a result of pre-cooling of the surface layer in sheltered locations within the canyon. Once formed, the inversion, in the simpler cases, showed little change because adiabatic heating of the down-valley wind compensated for the radiational cooling. Dissipation occurred simply as a result of heating from below.
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