UNSTABLE was a field project in the summer of 2008 to better understand the large-scale and mesoscale forcings of summer storms. This thesis objective is to better understand boundary layer characteristics and convective environments in the Alberta foothills. Three sub-objectives are designed to address the overall thesis goal: (1) Characterize the daily evolution of the boundary layer during different convective regimes, (2) distinguish conditions between days with deep, shallow and no convection, and (3) to illustrate how targeted soundings can be useful for severe storm prediction. Non-convective days exhibited a warmer atmospheric column. Days with shallow convection exhibited a mid-level inversion. Deep convective days commonly displayed unstable low-levels and cooler upper levels, deep low-level moisture and the mountain-plains circulation. When compared to the pre-existing operational upper air network, mobile UNSTABLE soundings better captured the near storm environment of two tornadic events in terms of available instability and shear profiles.