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Weather Patterns

Weather Patterns. Air Masses and Fronts - Vocabulary. Air Mass – A huge body of air that has similar temperature, pressure, and humidity throughout. Tropical – A warm air mass that forms in the tropics and has low air pressure.

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Weather Patterns

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  1. Weather Patterns

  2. Air Masses and Fronts - Vocabulary • Air Mass – A huge body of air that has similar temperature, pressure, and humidity throughout. • Tropical – A warm air mass that forms in the tropics and has low air pressure. • Polar – A cold air mass that forms north of 50° north latitude or south of 50° south latitude and has high air pressure. • Maritime – A humid air mass that forms over oceans. • Continental – A dry air mass that forms over land.

  3. Air Masses and Fronts - Vocabulary • Front – The area where air masses meet and do not mix • Occluded – Cut off, as the warm air mass at an occluded front is cut off from the ground by cooler air beneath it. • Cyclone – A swirling center of low air pressure. • Anticyclone –A high-pressure center of dry air.

  4. Air Masses and Fronts – Main Ideas • Four major types of air masses influence the weather in North America: maritime tropical, continental tropical, maritime polar, continental polar. • When air masses collide, they form four types of fronts: cold fronts, warm fronts, stationary fronts, and occluded fronts. • Cyclones and decreasing air pressure are associated with storms and precipitation.

  5. Air Masses and Fronts – Review Questions • What two main characteristics are used to classify air masses? • What is a front? Name and describe four types of fronts. • What is a cyclone? What type of weather does it bring? • Why do maritime polar air masses have more effect on the West Coast than the East Coast?

  6. Storms - Vocabulary • Storm – A violent disturbance in the atmosphere • Lightning – A sudden spark, or energy discharge, caused when electrical charges jump between parts of a cloud or between a cloud and the ground. • Tornado – A rapidly whirling, funnel-shaped cloud that reaches down from a storm cloud to touch Earth’s surface, usually leaving a destructive path. • Hurricane – A tropical storm that has winds of 119 kilometers per hour or higher; typically about 600 kilometers across.

  7. Storms - Vocabulary • Storm surge – A dome of water that sweeps across the coast where a hurricane lands. • Evacuate – To move away temporarily.

  8. Storms – Main Ideas • Thunderstorms and tornadoes form within large cumulonimbus clouds. During thunderstorms, avoid touching metal objects. • A hurricane begins over warm water as a low-pressure area. If you hear a hurricane warning and are told to evacuate, leave the area immediately. • Snow falls when humid air cools below 0°C. If you are caught in a snowstorm, try to find shelter from the wind.

  9. Storms – Review Questions • What weather conditions are most likely to cause thunderstorms and tornadoes? • What is the most common path for the hurricanes that strike the United States? • What safety precautions should you take if a tornado is predicted in your area? If a hurricane is predicted?

  10. Floods - Vocabulary • Flash flood – A sudden, violent flood that occurs within a few hours, or even minutes, of a heavy rainstorm.

  11. Floods – Main Ideas • Floods occur when so much water pours into a stream or river that it overflows its banks on either side of the channel. • The first rule of flood safety: Move to higher ground and stay away from flood waters.

  12. Floods – Review Questions • How can precipitation cause flooding? • What should you do to stay safe during a flood? • What is the difference between a flood watch and a flood warning? • Name three tools that supply information used in forecasting floods and providing flood information.

  13. Predicting the Weather - Vocabulary • Meteorologist – Scientist who study the causes of weather and try to predict it. • El Niño – an event that occurs every two to seven years in the Pacific Ocean, during which winds sift and push warm water toward the coast of South America; it can cause dramatic climate changes. • Isobar – Lines on a map joining places that have the same air pressure. • Isotherm – Lines on a map joining places that have the same temperature.

  14. Predicting the Weather – Main Ideas • Meteorologists interpret weather information from local weather observers, instruments carried by balloons, satellites, and weather stations around the world. • Changes in weather technology have occurred in two areas: gathering weather data and using computers to make forecasts. • Standard symbols on weather maps show fronts, areas of high and low pressure, types of precipitation, and temperatures.

  15. Predicting the Weather – Review Questions • What kinds of technology do meteorologists use to help predict the weather? • Name at least three types of information you could get from a weather map of your area. • What lines on a weather map connect points that have the same temperature?

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