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Here in the southern interior of British Columbia (east of the Cascade/Coast Mountains), elevation tends to have a greater difference in the summer than the winter. As you travel further north into the Yukon, the winters are actually much warmer at higher elevations. It can above freezing up on the ridges, but -40 down the valley bottoms where everyone lives and the weather stations reside. This is why the Yukon gets so cold even though the average temperature much warmer than the Northwest Territories where it doesn't get nearly as cold. The strong inversion was observed in 1947 when the Yukon dropped below -80°F.
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One of the most notable traits of the day, remembered by both Toole and Blezard, was the enhanced audibility and crystal clarity of sounds due to the denser air and absence of wind. In addition, the strong surface temperature inversion bent the sound waves back toward the surface, thus causing sounds to hug the ground.
The freezing of one's breath produced a continuous hissing sound similar to dry blowing snow, and a tinkle when the ice crystals hit the ground. Thin ice when broken sounded exactly like breaking glass. The contraction of ice covering the nearby river was also very apparent. "Ice in the White River about a mile east of the airport, cracked and boomed loudly, like gunfire," reported Toole.
"At 80 below, the talking of the Indians and the barking of dogs in the village could be plainly heard at the airport four miles away," recalled Blezard. "An aircraft that flew over Snag that day at 10,000 feet [3050 m] was first heard when it was over 20 miles [32 km] away. Later, when overhead, still at 10,000 feet, the engine roar was deafening. It woke everyone who was sleeping at the time, because they thought the airplane was landing at the airport."
I wonder if the valley shape effects temperature. Some valleys are U shaped and others are V shaped. It seems that the valleys with very steep sides get more extreme heat during heatwaves.
One thing is for sure, and that is the edge of a flat plateau is warmer than the middle of the plateau. This is because the warm air from the valley below will flow up onto the plateau edges. One can observe this reality in spring as well when the leaves come out a lot sooner near the valley edge. I don't know if the reverse is true of instead of a deep valley, the edge of the plateau goes up into the mountains.
Nighttime temperatures seem to change a lot more than daytime temperatures on either side of the Rocky Mountains. EG Lunch Lake vs Calgary (August ave. = 22.3 and 4.7 at Lunch Lake and 22.5 and 8.6 in Calgary)
Back to summer heatwaves for second, I've noticed that during a hot mid-summer heatwave the temperature difference is often close to 10 degrees C per km, but fall heatwaves have less difference with elevation. The hottest September heatwave on record here (a half dozen places reached 39 C), occurring back in 1988, only saw a difference 2.7 C / km for the daily maximum.
The wiki page for oymyakon says that winter temps in the area increase by as much as 10C as altitude increases, though I can't access the reference cited.
A weather station near the top of Ester Dome (near Fairbanks, AK) at elevation 2177 ft has a higher annual temperature than a nearby station, Ester, at 655 ft. Another station at 630ft, Ester 5NE, is slightly cooler than Ester at night, about 1-2F, but a few miles further away. Data is at http://ggweather.com/normals/AK.html#E
The dome averages 2.8F/1.6C warmer overall. Year-round average is a high of 36.0F, low 22.2F, average 29.1F. The lower station (Ester) averages 38.0, 14.6, 26.3. (In degrees C: 2.2, -5.4, -1.6 for the dome and 3.3, -9.7, -3.2 for the lower station). The dome has warmer nights year-round, warmer averages October to April, warmer days only November to February.
Comparing Ester Dome (2177ft/664m) with Ester (655ft/200m)
Jan Day: +4.7°F / 1000 ft (+8.5°C / km)
Jan Night: +9.7°F / 1000 ft (+17.6°C / km)
Jul Day: -4.1°F / 1000 ft (-7.5°C / km)
Jul Night: +1.4°F / 1000 ft (+2.6°C / km)
Precipitation: +0.73 in / 1000 ft (61 mm / km) (using Ester 5NE since Ester doesn't have precipitation data)
Sometimes on clear nights the lowlands get colder than the mountains due to inversion. But then when the sun comes up the lowlands heat up and the mountains do not. This is common in Melbourne with the nearby Mt Dandenong.
When flying into Kuwait City, I have noticed some interesting ambient temperature patterns (as indicated on passenger monitors).
During the summer, the lapse rate is very steep - much more than the average 1 degree C for 150 m. It could sometimes be 40 C on the ground and 0 C at 15,000 ft.
During the winter, the lapse rate is unusually small. On a clear night under a high pressure ridge, the difference between 5000 ft and sea level is almost nonexistent.
A temperature inversion can explain why there is little difference at night. Air at high altitudes can't heat as well as the ground during the day. Night is different; cold air sinks and air temp at ground level is colder than higher up.
I can imagine the lapse rate is steep in summer because Kuwait is under strong subtropical high pressure. Heated air will rise to a certain altitude then be forced back down, which is why it can get so hot. Above this altitude, the air is unaffected by high pressure and is very cold.
Just a simple point without providing any solutions... El Alto in Bolivia is at 4100m and has an average annual temperature of 7.8 degrees. So with the -0.6 per hundred meter logic, Trinidad, a few hundred kms away at 130m should have an average annual temperature of 31.8 instead of 25.5, or El Alto should have an average temperature of barely above freezing (1.5 degrees). In reality the difference between these two cities is 17.7 degrees or only 0.44 per hundred meters. Seems minor but leads to a discrepancy of about 6 degrees celsius which isn't small no matter how you look at it!
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