For Students · Lapse Rate
Lapse Rate for a drought cycle
Built for students learning it for a class or exam. See the concept move instead of memorizing formulas — and check your homework intuition. Simulate a drought cycle live below — adjust the inputs and watch it respond, right in your browser.
Atmospheric Lapse Rate & Cloud BaseLive
temperature & pressure with altitude
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Air cools with height at the environmental lapse rate. Rising air cools until it hits its dew point at the lifting condensation level — the cloud base — estimated by (T − Td)/8 km. The pressure falls with altitude following the barometric formula.
Data Inspector
Cloud base0.88 km
Pressure at 3 km701 hPa
T at 5 km-17.5 °C
Governing equation
Reading this result: Cloud base is set by the dew-point depression, not the lapse rate: it sits at roughly (T − Td)/8 km, while the lapse rate only controls how cold it gets on the way up.
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- Is this good for students?
- Yes — this version of "Lapse Rate for a drought cycle" is framed for students learning it for a class or exam. See the concept move instead of memorizing formulas — and check your homework intuition.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. It runs in any modern browser, free, with no account required.