I agree with Brandon, Patrick, and Jeff: all relevant parameters need to be considered when dealing with convective initiation via the parcel method. I was simply stating that I think CIN is more useful alone than just the temperature at one level alone.
To add to this increasingly educational thread, one would also like to know the vertical moisture profile as well to gauge the effects of entrainment as well as find levels of potential instability. It seems to me often that when you have a strong, but maybe shallow warm layer cap like the sounding on the left in Brandon's image, leading up to that capping inversion is usually a moist or well mixed PBL such that one is nearly saturated at the bottom of the inversion with rapid drying with height above. Thus there is some potential instability that can be gathered by lifting the entire inversion layer.
To add to this increasingly educational thread, one would also like to know the vertical moisture profile as well to gauge the effects of entrainment as well as find levels of potential instability. It seems to me often that when you have a strong, but maybe shallow warm layer cap like the sounding on the left in Brandon's image, leading up to that capping inversion is usually a moist or well mixed PBL such that one is nearly saturated at the bottom of the inversion with rapid drying with height above. Thus there is some potential instability that can be gathered by lifting the entire inversion layer.
