If you sensed a rapid, sudden increase in the temperature this
morning, your senses didn't deceive you. Between 8 and 8:12
a.m., the temperature shot from 36 to 56 degrees as winds pushed
out a lingering temperature inversion and warmer air spilled
down from the nearby mountains, the National Weather Service
reported. "It's pretty unique," said NWS meteorologist Mike
Ottenweller. "We (usually) might see 10 degrees in an hour or
something like that." The sudden rise in temperature signaled
the end of an 11-day inversion of stagnant air that kept the
average high temperature at 34 degrees, five degrees below the
normal average. "The inversion we had over the top of us for the
last week or so was rather strong," Ottenweller said. Coastal
winds helped to mix some of the warmer air originally trapped at
higher elevations because of the inversion. In addition, air
from the nearby Siskiyou Mountain range is compressed and
becomes warmer as it spills into the Rogue Valley. Ottenweller
compared the action to the way a