Convection
The family and I were out on the coast last week. I invited a friend of mine and his family to fly out for an afternoon and have lunch (He is a fellow pilot and owns a Cirrus SR20). The weather on the coast was beautiful so I figured it wouldn't be a problem. Later that afternoon, he called to tell me they had tried to fly out but had been forced to turn back because of the thunder heads over the mountains. He said he had climbed to 13,000 feet and the clouds were building faster than he was climbing. This condition lasted for several days over the mountains, so when we loaded up to go back to the valley the next afternoon, I was unsure of what we would find over the high country. Once at altitude and heading east, sure enough there they were. A line of tall cumulus clouds were right in our path. The clouds looked quite a bit lower to the south down towards Clear Lake, so I altered my course and started climbing. With my wife in her "condition" (she is 8 months pregnant), I wanted to stay as low as possible to avoid any negative effects of reduced air pressure. As it was, I climbed as high as 12,000 feet to get over the top. She was not amused as her tummy swelled. Once over the top I descended down to a more comfortable altitude and we were glad to be almost home.