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Understanding Air Masses and Fronts for Weather Prediction

Learn about air masses, including maritime, continental, polar, and tropical types, and fronts - cold, warm, occluded, and stationary, influencing North American weather patterns. Explore how fronts trigger vertical air movements in cyclones and anticyclones to predict cloudy, wet or clear, dry conditions.

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Understanding Air Masses and Fronts for Weather Prediction

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  1. Chapter 16.2 Air Masses and Fronts

  2. Air Masses • Large body of air where temperature and moisture content are similar throughout. • Named for where they form: • M- Maritime- over water- Wet • C- Continental- over land- Dry • P- Polar- over polar regions- Cold • T- Tropical- over tropical regions- Warm

  3. Combine letters to describe air masses • mP- Maritime Polar • Wet, Cold • cP- Continental Polar • Dry, Cold • mT- Maritime Tropical • Wet, Warm • cT- Continental Tropical • Dry, Warm

  4. Air Masses that affect weather in North America http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7r.html

  5. Air Masses

  6. Fronts • The boundary between Air Masses • Four types: • Cold • Warm • Occluded • Stationary

  7. Cold Front • Cold, denser air moves under warm, less dense air and pushes the warm air up. • Moves quickly and brings heavy precipitation, followed by cooler, drier air. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7r.html

  8. Warm Front • Warm, less dense air moves over cold, denser air. • Brings drizzly rain, followed by clear, warm weather. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7r.html

  9. Occluded Front • Warm air caught between two colder air masses. • Cold air pushes warm air up, bringing cool temperatures and large amounts of precipitation. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7r.html

  10. Stationary Front • “Stalemate” between a cold air mass and a warm air mass. • Brings many days of cloudy, wet weather. http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/Atmosphere/tstorm/stat_front.html

  11. Fronts

  12. Vertical Air Movement • Cyclone: the winds circulate counterclockwise around a low. The air is warm at the surface so it rises in a column such that its winds spiral upward and cool. The cyclone is associated with rain-making conditions. • Anticyclone: develops where cold air aloft, being heavier and having a higher pressure, descends in spiraling motions to reach the surface as a pressure high. Brings dry, clear weather. http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect14/Sect14_1c.html

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