dewpoint depression

Does the environmental and dew point temperatures have to coincide before saturation is reached and clouds form, or can the dew point depression be non-zero and allow clouds to form?

I am looking at this old reference - http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0450%281968%29007%3C0206%3ADTI%3E2.0.CO%3B2 and I had a question regarding dew point inversion and it's effect on vertical mixing. Say I had a daytime dew point inversion at the upper level of the troposphere...

I've been chasing for many years now. I've studied some mesoscale meteorology as it applies to thunderstorms/tornadoes, but I'm certainly no meteorologist. The three calculations in the thread title are things I've felt I understood pretty well, but the harder I think about them, the less clear...

I've been chasing for many years now. I've studied some mesoscale meteorology as it applies to thunderstorms/tornadoes, but I'm certainly no meteorologist. The three calculations in the thread title are things I've felt I understood pretty well, but the harder I think about them, the less clear...